Mission Control
by clumsy.carrie
Summary: SEQUEL TO LEFT UNSAID. Molly Gale figured that, having had the childhood from hell, she would aim for a relaxing adulthood. Then she became an auror, stumbled into a fifteen-year conspiracy against the auror department, tried to avoid the paparazzi stalking her and Albus Potter, and obtained shared custody of her 13-year-old brother and sister. And this was supposed to be easier.
1. The Interim Years

**A/N**: I'm back, team! And wrote the last thousand words of this prologue tonight while inhaling cookies and diet coke and listening to the same song on repeat, which means it is either very good or really incoherent. Hope the latter.

This is the sequel to Left Unsaid. I'm going to take down Wayward Weasley and retool it after I write this story, but this story has to take precedent. A little explanation on this is warranted; I sort of convinced myself it was self-indulgent of me to keep writing Molly. I love Molly Gale, the character that stumbled into my head in 2011 (three years ago, yikes). She is fun to write. Rose Weasley was less fun but an interesting experiment, to which I will come back. But I need to finish Molly (and, kind of, Sera Finnigan), first.

If you have not read **Left Unsaid**, this is going to be more difficult to read. Not impossible, but difficult. It's also tied into **No Chance**, but **No Chance** is not as crucial as those events theoretically occurred about twelve years before this, which means there will be a lot of review of those concepts because the characters will need it, not just us.

A further note; I have really tried with dates, but, for whatever reason, my vast intellect (JK, I can't always follow the plot of commercials) tends to get dates messed up more frequently than, say, names. So. If there's an error, let me know a.s.a.p. Or if there are other errors.

* * *

Prologue

_November 2022; Sixth Year_

As one might imagine, the seventeenth birthday is a big one in the wizarding world. Most people celebrate by going out and getting crashingly drunk. Some have dignified dinners with cocktails, some take a big group over to their house and lose their minds there; age of majority is still widely celebrated, mostly with alcohol.

I had instead opted to celebrate with the Family Services segment of the Ministry of Magic.

Nate, the Weasleys, and Augusta Longbottom and I sat in folding chairs in silence, watching Mr. Potter across the narrow hallway.

"You don't have to do this, Molly." Mr. Weasley, Fred's dad, said finally, his voice low. I let out a breath, and beside me, in my peripheral vision, I saw Nate's fist clench. Nate hated the Weasleys, mostly Fred, though it carried over somewhat to his very similar father. But that wasn't why I was doing this.

"I don't." I agreed quietly, looking down at the papers in front of me. Nate had printed my name in block letters, and then, in the box below, his. Silence fell again. We'd had this half of the conversation ten times since I'd told them, two weeks ago, that I would be filing for sole custody of Nate. It always ended here, their lack of comprehension obvious, but my lacking anything to offer them.

Not this time.

"What did I do wrong?" Augusta asked finally, her voice steely. I blinked, then leaned forward to stare at her. My brother's guardian didn't look at me, instead staring at the wall.

"What?" Nate finally asked after a beat, speaking for both of us, mimicking my position.

"Why do you want sole custody of Nathanial?" She asked, not meeting my eyes. I swallowed as it dawned on me; she thought she had screwed up somehow, lost our trust. _No_.

"I asked her to take custody because you aren't my family and she is." Nate snapped. I glanced sharply at him, but he was staring at his guardian. "It was really nice of you to take Molly in, and I know she loves you, and I know Cory and the twins love you, but _I don't belong to any of you people_." Nate shook his head once, his accusing glance flicking from Augusta to the other adults near us. "This wasn't Molly's choice. It was mine."

George Weasley looked confused. "What made you think you didn't belong to us?" He asked in an odd voice.

Nate snorted derisively. "Molly is your son's best friend and your nephew's girlfriend. Cormac is young and so smart and _magic_. The twins are adorable and a walking advertisement for what's worth saving from domestic abuse." He shook his head. "I'm too old, I've been arrested, and I was the kid who couldn't keep it together. You've been kind to me because of Molly and that's—"

"I am very much attached to you." Mrs. Longbottom said quietly. "Also to the twins and Cormac and Molly, but you are not the exception, Nathanial. I am very attached to you too." Silence fell on us as we all blinked at Mrs. Longbottom. Nate shot me panic eyes—what was he supposed to say to _that_—but didn't say anything. So I swallowed and then slid forward on my chair, so I could face her.

"Did you just say that you love us?" I asked after a beat. Mrs. Longbottom raised her eyebrows.

"Did you not hear me?" She asked me chidingly.

"You love us?" Nate asked. "All of us?" Nate's voice was so much softer now, and I saw Mr. Weasley suppress a smile in my peripheral vision.

"I believe I said that I love you in addition to your siblings." Mrs. Longbottom confirmed. "Not just all of you as a unit. I love you, Nathanial, and Molly, and Cormac and Callum and Elena." Nate stared at her. Then he turned and sat back in his chair, looking down at his hands. He looked like a little boy, years younger. After almost a minute, he glanced up at me. The moment I met his gaze, I let out a breath, looking up at my boyfriend's father.

"Alright, team, we're not doing this today." I said shortly to him. "Can I floo back from the Auror department? And can someone take Nate home?"

"I'm not a child—" Nate muttered resentfully as Mr. Potter nodded to my first question.

"You have to go back to school today, okay?" I said to him, turning back to him. "And tell Tessa I say hi. And if you want a gift from Hogsmeade hit me up but I'm sure you can get into Diagon Alley if you ask Mrs. Longbottom." I paused. "And tell the twins I love them." I stood up, looking expectantly at the group. "Mr. Potter, care to walk back upstairs with me?"

My boyfriend's father blinked at me. "What just happened?" He asked.

"Nate wanted to be in my custody. Now he doesn't." I said shortly. "Let's go. If I run I can make Al's quidditch game."

Mr. Potter shook his head, pushing himself up, and I turned, walking away from him. I heard him mutter something about crazy children as he caught up with me, his shoes scuffing the floor loudly. I barely heard him, though, because I was too busy pushing down a smile as my ears rung.

Mrs. Longbottom loved us.

* * *

_June 2023_

"How is James graduating?" Fred murmured to me as we stood several steps back from the Potter family; they were taking pictures together on the lawn of their yard, at James's graduation party. Sera was beaming at them from behind a camera, her black robe open to show off her golden dress. Golden girl wears golden dress. Sera was too much.

"I don't know." I said, taking a sip of the champagne that I'd grabbed within three steps of arriving. I shook my head, looking up at Fred. "Scarier even is that, next year, this is going to be _us_."

Fred wheeled around to glare at me. "No. I refuse." He said shortly. "I love Hogwarts. I don't want to be a grown up." I snorted in laughter.

"Too late, dude. I almost had custody of another human being like eight months ago." I rolled my eyes.

"That's different." Fred said dismissively; I glanced at him, my eyebrows raised. "Nate is—not a child." I shrugged one shoulder, turning back to the Potter family.

Albus looked good today; those skinny Potter boys wore suits well, even if Albus probably weighed less than even his brother. It was made him such a good seeker, all stick skinny with wiry muscles. "I can't believe Albus is already talking to recruiters." I murmured.

"He's _what_?" Fred demanded, and I glanced sharply at him, wondering if this was news to him. Shock quickly gave way to indignation, bringing his eyebrows together. "Albus _didn't _tell _me_ that!" I pursed my lips. I had assumed Albus had told everyone; it was exciting, after all. Munich's team had even offered him a lot of money to drop out and just begin as soon as possible, but Albus hadn't wanted to.

In fairness, I wasn't sure what that number was; Albus had gotten weird when I asked him, and I hadn't wanted to push on it. We were both weird about money, albeit for different reasons. He had a lot of it, and not so much for the Gales, though the Weasleys and Mrs. Longbottom were now terrifying insistent that I was their child, too, and thusly just as entitled to financial assistance as their children.

"Oops." I murmured, taking another sip of champagne.

"Albus!" Fred called across the grass, cupping one hand around his mouth; Al glanced up at him alertly, even as I choked on my champagne, realizing that if Albus hadn't told Fred, he definitely hadn't told his parents.

"_Fred—"_ I garbled out, grabbing for his arm.

But Fred was already beaming at his cousin; he'd figured out the exact same thing I had, only faster. And he had no qualms about getting his cousin in trouble. _Dammit_, Fred. "You didn't tell me you were already talking to teams!"

The Potters froze in spot, all of them looking at us instead of the camera. Even perfect Sera had stopped, her mouth slightly open as she stared at us.

"Woah, Albus." Lily said after a beat.

"Yes, Albus, _woah_." Mrs. Potter said acidly, looking down at her son. Albus met her gaze for a half-second before looking at me accusingly.

"I didn't know it was a secret!" I called out, stepping forward. "You should have told me that you weren't telling your parents—"

"You told _Molly_ but not _us_?" James demanded irritably, and Albus shot him a warning look.

"Awful lot of emphasis on my girlfriend's name there, mate." Albus noted darkly, stepping away from his family to turn to face them; the picture-perfect family of a minute ago was disintegrating in front of our eyes. "And I'm only _talking _to them, Mum, it's just—"

"They're not supposed to recruit under-17s." Ginny said darkly. "Was it Tutshill? It sounds like something Cho would pull—"

"I'm not under 17!" Albus retorted, shooting his mother a bewildered look. "And Tutshill didn't ask."

"I didn't realize you were thinking about being a professional seeker, son." Mr. Potter said, concern shading his voice.

"I am literally speaking words at these people, the same way I am talking to you." Albus snapped. "I'm not making a career decision this second, at James's graduation party, nor have I any of the seconds before this because it's been _insane _the last few weeks." He ran his hand through his hair. "This is _exactly why I didn't tell you._ I knew you'd get crazy." He turned to me plaintively. "I _knew_."

"You're speaking words at them?" James demanded of his little brother, his eyebrows raised. Albus waved an exasperated hand at him.

"If Tutshill didn't ask, who did?" Mr. Potter asked curiously. Albus spun to meet his gaze, a new kind of frantic energy entering his body. He managed to hold still, though, and silence fell after his father's question. For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to answer, but then my boyfriend ran a hand over his eyes.

"Kites, Quafflepunchers, Finches, Mules, and the Cannons." He listed shortly. "Mules offered me 100,000 galleons bonus to start immediately."

This time there really was silence.

_100,000 galleons_. Holy shit. That was not a small amount of money. That was nearly 500,000 pounds. And that was his _bonus_.

"What the fuck." Fred said finally, no inflection at all in his voice. "You're not that good."

"_Thanks_." Albus said sarcastically, shooting Fred an irritated look; James snickered, and Albus took a long enough pause to look heavenward for help. I sighed, stepping forward to grab his hand, and he squeeze it lightly, glancing down at me for a second before he looked back to his father. "And I know, I'm not that good. I think it's a name thing—Harry Potter's son on the team is a lot of publicity."

"You are really good though." I said quietly, looking from him back to Fred challengingly. Fred made a face at me. "You would have been recruited without the name. Just maybe less money."

"Definitely less money." James murmured, but when I turned to glare at him, he was frowning at Albus almost absent-mindedly. He was no longer involved in this conversation. Ugh, _James_.

"Why didn't you take it?" Lily asked curiously.

"He did it for Molly." James guessed. I flushed, glancing from Al to his parents, to James, who was looking at me like _I knew it_. He raised an eyebrow at me, and I glared more fiercely at him. He raised his eyebrows. "She's at school next year, even if Al isn't." He continued after a beat, his voice a little softer; his tone startled me. "He's staying for her."

Albus said nothing, and Mr. Potter blew out a breath. Silence tucked in around us as the graduation party went on, just a few feet from us, on all sides. I caught Mrs. Longbottom's gaze; the old woman was standing at the drinks table, a glass of scotch in the hand opposite her handbag. She was observing our whole interaction with interest. "Okay." Mrs. Potter finally said quietly; my gaze snapped back to her. She looked at me for a long moment, before looking to her husband. "I believe Sera and Molly belong in the family photo, then, don't they?"

"If you say so, my dear." Mr. Potter said mildly. Albus's arm, under my fingers, relaxed considerably, as Sera handed off the camera to Fred.

"Wait, so it takes _Molly_ to get the girls in the picture, even though Sera and I are practically—" James demanded, outraged, as he turned to his mother, his arm dropping from around her shoulders.

"_Molly_?" Albus repeated angrily. "_Molly_ is my—"

"Oh, Lord." I interrupted tiredly. "We will never bury this bone. Can we just take this photo now?" Albus sighed dramatically. "C'mon." I ordered, grabbing his hand pulling him with me back to his parents as James allowed his mother's arm to slide back around him. We fell into formation easily, even with Sera's and my new addition.

That was the first family photo I had been in since I was eleven.

* * *

_December 2023; Seventh Year_

"Happy Christmas!" I said cheerily to my siblings' guardian; Mrs. Longbottom allowed me to kiss her cheek, raising her Sherry to me.

"And to you, my dear." She said to me, smiling slightly; this was the most enthusiasm I'd received from her since hearing that she was "quite fond" of me. As she turned her gaze to Albus, however, her smile dropped and eyes turned icy. "Mr. Potter." She said levelly. "I should like to have a moment's conversation with you." She had never liked Albus since he was a little kid—a few pranks too many, I suspected—but it had reached a new level since I had informed her that he and I would be living together after school ended.

"And we shall get some drinks." Professor Longbottom said grandly, coming over to me. He was in a nice suit, and he put a hand on my upper back to separate me from my boyfriend. I resisted the urge to go back to Al; surely Mrs. Longbottom would not maim him in front of all of these people.

Although, who knew? She did dislike him, after all.

"Why are you kidnapping me?" I demanded of my head of house, shooting him a disgruntled frown.

"Because," Professor Longbottom said to me in a pleasant tone, guiding me to where a suit of armor in the corner was offering flutes of champagne, "my lovely grandmother said she would like to have a private conversation with Albus, and I," Longbottom took one glass and quickly downed the entire thing, "being of sound mind," He put down the first glass and delicately picked up a second, "thought it would be in everyone's best interest to acquiesce."

"She's not _that_ scary." I muttered, also taking a glass and ignoring my professor's apparently-impending alcoholism. I turned slightly, glancing back at where my siblings' guardian had pulled my boyfriend to the side, her voice low as she spoke to my wide-eyed boyfriend. "Albus is not going to fare well in this." I said after a beat, sighing. "When he gets nervous, he makes jokes."

"Gran does _not_ like jokes." Longbottom agreed, then knocked back this glass of champagne as well. I raised my eyebrows.

"What are you doing?" I asked him slowly. Longbottom shot me a wild look.

"I've been offered the post of Head of School." He murmured to me, turning back to the suit of armor and putting down his empty glass. "Padma is going to Salem at the end of the year, she's marrying a American, and the post is mine if I want it."

"That's great!" I said after a beat, and Longbottom grabbed another glass. The armor's helmet's visor flopped up and down once, and Longbottom squinted at it suspiciously, before turning his back on it dismissively.

"Quite pleased, yes, but Gran is going to _kill_ me." He whispered hysterically. I stared up at him. "Gran is not going to be pleased. She has wanted me to quit and come be Earl of the Longbottom Estate for years." He glanced at me frantically. "It's a miracle I am even _employable_!"

"Okay, wow." I said after a beat. "Are you a proper Earl, with the—"

"We were raised by the same taxidermied-animal-wearing old woman and I intend on getting drunk enough to sleep here by the end of the evening." Professor Longbottom told me, still frenzied. "I think we can jump to first names until the New Year." He downed this third glass, as well. "And yes, I am, I think? I don't know, I have blocked out most of the knowledge of the Longbottoms that was heaved upon me at the Summer Estate."

"Okay, you are acting like you are a thirteen-year-old at his first alcoholic party so I will tell you exactly what I told Nate when I ran into him there." I said shortly to my head-of-house. "Mum and Dad will kill you if they see you, you look like an idiot, no one will carry you home if you pass out, and if you continue, you shall probably sick up approximately one hundred times." I paused. "If you replace _Mum and Dad_ with Mrs. Longbottom, it will be about correct."

Longbottom blinked at me. "You wouldn't have carried home your brother?"

"Of course, I would have." I said dismissively, turning to look at Albus again and taking a single sip of my drink. Mrs. Longbottom nodded to him and Albus stepped away, hurrying across the large hall to me. "But you can't tell him that or else that's no disincentive." Albus finally reached us, and his face was white. "I'm on first name bases with our head of house, now, Al." I said with a sardonic smile. "Oh, and Longbottom is going to be the next head of school. Also he might be a muggle earl." Albus blinked at me. "In truth, I was left with more questions than answers from our chat." I paused, and the black-haired boy in front of me remained silent. Hmm. That was uncharacteristic. "Albus?" I asked after a longer moment. He did not speak. "Is everything okay?"

"Mrs. Longbottom has bought us a house in London." He said flatly. "In Knightsbridge. It has a lot of bedrooms. And probably cost actual millions of galleons." I stared at him.

"What?" I asked after a beat.

"I thought you said she disapproved of us living together." Albus whispered, stepping forward. I blinked up at him.

"She did!" I protested, indignant at the accusation. "She does. She's been—you've seen how she's been towards you since I told her!"

"She does disapprove." Longbottom agreed tonelessly beside us. I turned to look at him; he had a new glass, but hadn't yet downed this one, which was promising. "She probably intends for it to be a kind of wedding gift. Like, I'll buy you a house, please make an honourable woman out of my ward, that sort of thing." He took a hearty sip of his champagne, but didn't down this one, which I considered to be progress.

I, on the other hand, was not making progress. Outrage and embarrassment were welling under my breastbone, swelling until it made my heartbeat speed, my lungs ache. Mrs. Longbottom thought we couldn't provide for ourselves, or thought that she had to bribe Albus into a relationship with me.

Albus seemed to notice that I was about to lose my shit, because he turned to our head of house. "Uncle Neville, is there any chance we could have a moment alone?" Albus asked after a beat, his voice pleasant; Longbottom raised his eyebrows.

"I can leave, but you two really should step into the back garden if you want to be properly alone." Longbottom muttered, turning away. "The walls have ears."

Albus tilted his head towards the French doors that lead from the foyer to the back steps and the garden, and I led the way out the doors, Al following me into the frigid night air. He had barely closed the door behind me before I spun on my heel. "She is _outrageous_." I said after a beat. "We haven't even graduated. I can't believe her. This is _so_—I'm embarrassed!" I cut myself off, shaking my head as I looked away determinedly. "Like you require a house—like we need that pressure, of a house with the encouragement to _marry_ when your grandmother has already _mentioned_ that she was engaged to your grandfather at eighteen like 100 times—"

"Love." Albus said carefully, and I glanced at him. He looked sort of slouched over, his shoulders pulled forward. His cloak hung awkwardly on his skinny, embarrassed shoulders. "I think she gave it to us because she thinks I'm not going to be able to provide for you."

I took a breath, my own embarrassment sliding out of me. "What?" I asked softly.

Albus blew out a breath, letting it cloud in front of him, before he leaned his head back to look at the sky. "She said that if I was going to insist on being an athlete, she would make sure you were taken care of." He wouldn't lower his gaze.

"Albus." I kept my voice very soft, taking a step towards him. I got so few opportunities to do this for Albus. I had to do this one right. I took a deep breath. "She had no right to say that."

"I mean." Albus laughed quietly, looking down at me and shrugging uncomfortably, too fast. "She's not wrong."

"She is." I disagreed quietly. "First off, you don't need to _provide _for me. I intend to get a job. Like an adult." I paused. "And, aside from that, people already offered you a ton of money to play. An actual _ton_."

"Because of Dad." Albus countered shortly. "Once it becomes clear that I'm not the second coming of Roderick Plumpton, they'll pay me the same amount they pay starter players which is not that much, and that might not even be enough to pay for maintenance on this goddamned house—" He reached up to run a hand through his hair.

"I don't want this house. You don't want this house." I said to him softly. "Let's give it back."

Albus's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "She definitely spent like 4 million galleons on that." He protested.

I shrugged as if this meant nothing; in reality, I knew there might be repercussions for turning down this property. But that didn't matter. Albus couldn't feel like shit about where we lived. That wasn't fair. "She didn't ask us. I don't care." Albus shifted from one foot to the other, and I felt my heart pang. Little boy Albus.

"I just hate that she thinks that it's necessary." He murmured.

"Then let's prove her wrong." I proposed easily, taking another step toward him, slipping my arms around his chest; after a second, he reached out, locking his fingers at the small of my back. "We'll give back the house. She'll give it to Nate when he reaches muggle majority, or to Neville." I looked up at him. "She has no idea what she's talking about. Ignore her. We'll be better off without this."

Albus nodded, and I ducked my head against his robe; he immediately pressed his face into my hair, inhaling deeply. "I wanna take care of you." He murmured.

"What made you think I didn't intend to become a gainfully-employed member of society?" I demanded of Albus, leaning my head back, though there was an amused smile on my face.

"You haven't mentioned anything." Albus admitted. "I knew you wanted a job. I just sort of assumed I'd give you some space to figure out what it was you wanted to do—" He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"I am employable." I protested. "I'm head of Dueling Club. I have better marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts than you." I raised an eyebrow. "I could probably sit the Protective Services Exam. Maybe I'll become an auror. Who knows?"

"Ugh, not an auror." Albus murmured, his eyes darkening with concern. "Get a desk job, won't you? Something in bubble wrap." I laughed but said nothing, and he ducked forward, kissing my forehead. "Don't seek out danger, Molls. It seems to find you easily enough." I grinned petulantly up at him, unable to even feign irritation at his worry.

It wasn't until four years later that I realized I should have listened.


	2. Mission Control

Mission Control

_You're going to forget all about your killer instincts, oh;  
__You gotta get by on what they think that you can think of;_  
_If you thought that you would do it somehow by yourself,_  
_But when you shouldn't of been listening to everybody else;_  
_You come and go;_ _Mission control._  
—_The Dandy Warhols_

At sixteen, when they sit all the fifth-years down and say _what do you want to be_, most people made up answers. There isn't that much to say and you're sixteen; who actually has an answer?

But then you're seventeen, and a legal adult, and everyone's pleased with the new ability to drink themselves into a stupor. A year later, they're at Hogwarts graduation and everyone is looking at each other like _oops._ We were supposed to get jobs and internships and pull ourselves together. And then, if you're me, your ex-best friend's dad pulls you and your boyfriend's roommate aside at graduation and says that we had the best Defense Against the Dark Arts NEWT scores in our year and the auror department wants recruits like us. And your boyfriend's roommate and you look at each other and, being the muggleborns you are with no plans for the future and, moreover, no idea howto_ make _plans, say what the hell, say sure.

Looking back, I kind of wish I'd given it a heartbeat's more thought. Not that I wouldn't have chosen this life again—this life of midnight ops and more time conditioning than the Chudley Cannons (and I know that first hand, because my boyfriend is on that team and he doesn't run as hard or as long as Liam or I) and weekly trips to St. Mungo's for everything from burns to broken bones. Just, I always assumed, growing up, that I wanted the most normal adulthood possible. I wanted a desk job and to go home at five pm and see my friends on weekends. I'd had the childhood from hell. Surely, I'd thought, I could just, make up for my lost normalcy once I was in control of my life. Instead, I chose this job of lunacy and criminals.

Sometimes, I think I'm a masochist.

* * *

"I can't move." Jessie murmured on the floor of the workout room. I snorted at the younger girl's dramatics, crossing the training mat where we'd been sparring; I offered down a hand, and she stared at it numbly. "My whole body hurts."

"I win." I flashed her a wolfish smile; Jessie groaned dramatically. Jessie Grier was my only female teammate on Alpha Team, the best team in the auror department. Because we were the only girls—except for our Deputy Team Leader, who was also female—we were always paired together to spar. We'd become friendly—though I had never quite figured out the trick to female friends—despite the fact that she was three years younger than my own twenty-two years.

Jessie frowned at me, but lifted one hand to take mine—

And then slammed her legs around my ankle and pulled up.

I shouted as I went down, hard. My lungs felt the air rush out; I sucked in air desperately as Jessie rolled up to her feet. I pulled my own knees just as she was getting her balance, and kicked out with both feet; she leapt away, giving me enough space to stagger to my own feet, my wand flying across the room to my hand wordlessly. Jessie made an indignant noise.

"I can't get the wandless summoning spell!" She said irritably. "How do you do that?"

I smirked at her. "Magic." Jessie exhaled shortly as I advanced on her; she backed up one step, two, but then she was at the end of the mat. We stared at each other for a beat, and then she leapt at me; I caught her advance with two hands right below her elbows. As we went down, I brought my knee up to her stomach, hard; she rolled off me the second we hit the ground, and slammed the mat with her hand. "Tap out, tap out—" she gasped out, and I laughed, pressing a hand to my stomach. "Jesus, Molly." Jessie murmured. I laughed softly again, keeping my back flat on the ground as my lungs ached for air. "Human predator, you are."

"Got that right." A male voice from somewhere near the front of the room came, and I lifted my head slightly off the floor; two of our teammates stood in the doorway: Liam Fitzroy and Ryan Halstead. I barely spared a glance for Ryan, who was the same age as Jessie, instead looking to Liam, who had spoken. I held out a hand to Fitzroy, and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"You killed Jessie, _again_?" Liam asked, sounding grumpy; Liam was one of a few people on the planet to take that tone with me, and even then, it was only because I'd known him since we were eleven. Liam had been my boyfriend's roommate at Hogwarts and, now that we'd graduated, was my closest ally. It was hard to describe him as a friend, per se—after all, we argued daily. But he was my partner, and we had enough history that he was somewhere in my inner circle.

"She asked me to." I said, dropping my head back against the mat. "Besides. She has to get better. Or else someone who won't let her tap out will get the jump on her." There was a grim edge to my voice, but Liam didn't react to it, instead frowning down at me.

"We have to go on a raid tonight." Liam continued to sound the same level of grumpy.

"And?" I prompted.

"If you're both dead on patrol—"

"Two things." I cut in, holding up two fingers. "I'm not going on patrol." I put down my index finger so I was just flipping Liam off, and his expression darkened further; I wondered if I was pushing him just a little too far. "And second, I'm the one who planned this fucking thing. If you think I'd screw up like two months of work by kicking Jessie's ass two hours before, then you are soundly mistaken."

"Why aren't you going on patrol?" Ryan sounded pointedly resentful, and I glanced at him sideways.

"None of your business." My voice was low and even, a warning; Liam elbowed Ryan, and Ryan looked away. I looked back to Liam, raising my eyebrows; he rolled his eyes, and I exhaled heavily, pushing myself up to a proper seated position; beside me, Jessie rolled onto her stomach, pressing her forehead against the mat. "What're you guys doing down here, anyway?" Liam shrugged, and said nothing else; I rolled my eyes. "Alrighty." I slung my arms over my knees, clapsing my hands together in front of me. "Where's Will?"

"He got caught fooling around with the daughter of one of the barristers in the prosecutors' office." Ryan murmured. I snickered. Will Lowe was the remaining member of our team, and was a junior with Ryan and Jessie. This was such a typical Will story.

"Idiot."

"Yeah, well, Chris is reaming him out upstairs, and I thought we'd better steer clear of the line of fire." Liam murmured.

"I can't feel my limbs." Jessie moaned into the mat.

"Then you won't feel a little more burn." I pointed out, looking at her. "Let's go, another twenty minutes." She rolled her head to the side, staring at me accusatorily.

"We've been at it for like four hours." Jessie mumbled.

"Or like forty five minutes." I corrected with a chuckle. She groaned.

"When is she going to need endurance for forty five minutes of hand-to-hand?" Liam demanded.

"If she's over-prepared, she'll be faster and able to get back to business faster than you lazy idiots." I pointed out.

"She's over-prepared for _ten minutes_ of hand-to-hand, which I've never had to deal with in four years on the force." Liam retorted.

"You'll thank her one day, Fitzroy." I promised, getting to my feet; I staggered a little once there, but remained up right. I was sore, I realized a little delayedly. "Alright, Jess, we're done."

"Thank Merlin." She muttered into the mat. Ryan moved to help her up with a sigh, and I crossed to stand unsteadily beside Liam.

"Family dinner tonight?" Liam asked lowly. I made a growling noise in the back of my throat. He chuckled. "How is the fam?"

"I hate these goddamned dinners. Augusta is just going to tell me I shouldn't be an auror again." I shook my head in irritation.

"She thinks women…?" Liam sounded bewildered, and I snorted, glancing at him.

"Are you kidding? That lady has fought in two wizarding wars. She's all for women everywhere." I leaned my head to one side, rubbing my neck. "She makes the valid point that if something happened to me in the field…" I leaned my head to the other side. "It wouldn't be fair to the kids."

Liam was silent for a long moment. "She's not wrong." He murmured after a long moment. I elbowed him, hard, and he frowned resentfully at me.

"Thanks." I said sarcastically. Liam shrugged, looking away from me to Ryan and Jessie; Ryan laughed as Jessie sagged back against the mat, pouting up at Ryan. Ryan was laughing a little too long, his smile a little too long, and I let out a breath, my eyes flicking between the two for a moment. "Do we have a problem, here?" I murmured.

"We will." Liam acknowledged lowly.

"Great." I muttered, turning away from them and pressing a hand to my sore lower back as I did. Liam turned to follow me. "No sex in the training room, idiots!" I called over my shoulder, and I heard Ryan's splutter as Liam chuckled behind me. I grinned to myself.

I loved harassing Ryan.

* * *

"Molly…" Albus whined, shifting in the doorway to our bedroom hours later, as I stepped into my dress, pulling it up. "We're gonna be late and—"

"Your dad will be fine with it, he's the one who _made_ me late by having me cover Chris Diamond's paperwork." I retorted as I zipped up the side of my dress. I turned to Al, putting my hands on my hips, the silent question of how this dress looked waiting for his answer before he nodded, running a hand through his black hair.

"That's what you get for deciding to become an auror." Albus said, shaking his head; ignoring his bemusement, I turned towards my dresser and the mirror that hung above it once more. "I tried to warn you." I reached up, pulling the hair tie out of my hair and running my fingers through my hair in a hap-hazard attempt to brush it before I finally settled on throwing it back in a messy braid; I glanced in the mirror as I separated my hair into three parts.

"You didn't warn me about the paper work." I shot back, my fingers sliding the hair around, over, around, over. Merlin, it'd been long since I'd had a haircut. "You told me you didn't want me to become an auror because I'd work crazy hours and probably get hurt in the field which stressed you out." I finished the braid, wrapping my hair tie around it loosely.

"That still stresses me out." Albus pointed out. I shrugged.

"Man up." I told him, then glanced towards my boyfriend, a smirk pulling at my features as I reached up to brush a few strands of my hair forward, letting the braid look more natural. "You're a seeker!" I retorted, my eyes flicking to the Chudley Cannons sticker that Albus had stuck to my mirror the day the team had signed him. A picture of my boyfriend, a few months younger, waved out at me from the sticker, one of those ridiculous cocky grins of his on his face, his green eyes bright. "That's dangerous too. Don't see me whining."

"Seeking is the least dangerous quidditch position." Albus retorted; I snorted in laughter.

"If you'd stay on your broom, I'd agree with that." I shot back. At least once a month, Albus got within two feet of a snitch with another seeker, and to ensure he retrieved the snitch, leapt from his broom _in midair. _This had earned him a nickname among fans of the Chudley Cannons: _Pilot Potter_. I was not a fan, because Albus was definitely going to hurt himself at it, but those idiots cheered for him and Albus forgot about safety when his own name was roaring in a stadium.

"The broom-bound are so limited." He sniffed; I rolled my eyes. He bounced up and down on his toes after a moment. "Molly! Mrs. Longbottom already thinks I'm a bad influence!"

"She's right about that most of the time." I informed him, and Albus waved an impatient hand at me.

"Irrelevant." He deemed. "I want her to _like _me." Albus's bright green gaze focused on me. "I intend on being around for a while. She has to like me." His voice was a little softer, now, and I exhaled, glancing at him sideways. Augusta Longbottom had been my legal guardian before I turned seventeen, and was currently legal guardian of my youngest brother and sister, the only remaining minors among my four siblings. Before that, she'd had custody of all of us for a few years; when I'd been sixteen, my dad had gone to jail, and our mum had walked out the day after he'd been arrested. Mrs. Longbottom had swept in and taken custody in a heartbeat.

"Too late for that." I muttered to my boyfriend; Albus winced. Al's affinity for pranks had not put him in Augusta's good graces.

"I hate family dinners." Albus muttered, reaching up to run his hand through his hair.

"I hate this family dinner because the rest of Alpha is out on _assignment_ tonight." I shook my head irritatedly. "I had to bail." I muttered; Albus laughed quietly. Alpha was one of the five teams in the auror department, and happened to be the one I was on. Teams were like houses had been at Hogwarts, except smaller; each team had about ten people on it, with a team leader and their deputy. Chris Diamond was my team leader, a sweet man of about forty who'd taken me under his wing when I'd started at the auror department. It helped that his daughter was the same age as my little sister Ellie, and the girls were friends. If it weren't for his temper, Chris would have been promoted by now, but his sharp tongue had held him back. His deputy, Halley Swann, was a really laid back, easy-going younger woman who was thirty—I'd gone to her birthday party last week—and probably as close as I got to a girl friend, though I spent more actual time with Jessie.

"You're the only girl I know who hates missing work." Albus murmured, coming up behind me and sliding his arms around my waist as he stepped up against me. I looked at him in the mirror.

"You hate missing work too." I noted.

"I play quidditch for a living." Albus murmured. "You run after bad guys and jump in lakes after them—"

"Only once." I said, turning to him combatively; Al grinned down at me, his hands resting easily on my hips. "And that was because he was a bleeding _idiot_ who thought I wouldn't chase him into water and I couldn't just let him _get away_—" Al covered my lips with his, silencing me, and I reached up, my hand sliding from the side of his neck to the back. My breath left me after only a few seconds but it was a minute later when I pulled away, my breathing erratic. "Now it _is _your fault we're late." I murmured to him. Albus blinked down at me, then laughed lowly, and I pulled away, grinning at him as I crossed to my closet, before I pulled the only pair of high heels I had, black peep-toe things, out of my closet and dropped them on the floor, putting them on. I turned back to Albus, and he grinned.

"You look _purdy_." He told me.

"We were supposed to be at Augusta's fifteen minutes ago." I told him; Albus cursed, rushing past me and grabbing my hand, dragging me after him to the floo with muttered curses. I just followed him, raising the protective wards on our flat with a double tap on the fire place before we stepped inside. I should have known, then, from the feeling in the pit of my stomach, that something was wrong. But I pushed it from my mind.

My team would be fine.

* * *

"Harry, this is getting ridiculous." Augusta said shortly to Mr. Potter as she sat across the long table in Mrs. Longbottom's dining room; I crossed from where I'd just entered at the door, swooping around the table to press a kiss to the top of my sister's head and run a hand over Cal's hair. Albus hit the other side of the table, clapping his brother on the back to slip into the seat beside his brother's girlfriend, Sera Finnigan; he shrugged off his jacket and threw it over the empty seat beside it, saving it for me. "Molly's been late to the last two dinners because of work—"

"Not Mr. Potter's fault, Augusta." I said, pausing behind Cal's chair to meet my siblings' guardian's eyes. "I was helping train one of the new recruits." Augusta Longbottom's eyes flashed at me, and awkward silence descended on the room.

"Not appropriate work for you, my dear." Her voice was anything but affectionate. I raised my eyebrows.

"You've made your opinion on that quite clear." I murmured, before breaking her gaze and looking down to Nate; he smirked up at me. Nate was the oldest of my brothers, but at 21, he was still a year younger than me. Next up was Cormac, and he was three and a half years younger than Nate, at eighteen, and then the twins, Cal and Ellie, were fourteen, the both of them enrolled at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Having fun yet?" He murmured as I ducked down to kiss his cheek.

"Shut up." I muttered, pulling away to duck around the table. I nodded at Albus's parents and his brother before I slipped into my own seat beside Al, to survey the scene before me.

Family dinner had started back when Albus and I—and our best friend, Fred Weasley—had been sixteen, and then it was just because Fred's family had been taking care of me before Mrs. Longbottom had, and I'd bonded with his mum. Then Albus and I had moved in together after Hogwarts, and the Potters had come over for dinner to join us, and now it was just a mess of Mrs. Longbottom and my siblings and me, and the Weasley-Potter clan. Some Sundays there were more people than others; after all, Al's family was huge. There was no telling who was showing up, when. This week, it was smaller than some nights; Al's brother James was here with Sera, but not his sister Lily, and Teddy Lupin and his family were also missing. Mrs. Potter's various siblings were mostly missing, except for her brother George and his son; George's wife wasn't there, though.

"If she's training recruits, Augusta, that means they trust her to do good work." Mr. Potter interrupted my survey with a grin for me; he didn't seem bothered by Mrs. Longbottom's obvious irritation. "Halley told me how you tracked the Roslyn warehouse switches, I was very impressed, Molly."

"Halley exaggerates." I said flatly, moving my napkin to my lap; I looked across the table to where my siblings were seated. One of them was missing, though: Cormac. _Where's Cory_? I mouthed at Nate.

_Work_. Nate mouthed the word, and I nodded once in acknowledgement even as Albus touched my arm. I glanced at him.

"Where's Cory?" He murmured; I felt the corner of my mouth twitch up as I smiled at my boyfriend. I liked that there were more people looking for my siblings, now.

"Work." I murmured, smoothing down my napkin before I looked back to Augusta. The woman looked imperiously down at me, her lips pursed.

"Who is this new recruit? Is she from a good family?" She asked curiously. Nate, across the table, snickered.

"Yes, because the Gale name is held in such good regard." He said, leaning forward; I spared a glare for him, but didn't refute him. It wasn't like my dad had brought honor to our family.

"Molly's a rising star in the auror department and Cormac has a very prestigious clerkship." Mr. Weasley informed my brother proudly; Nate glanced at Mr. Weasley with obvious distaste, but didn't argue. Nate hated Mr. Weasley for having so much paternal pride in Cory and I. Our first round with paternal figures—namely, our father—hadn't gone well. To say the least. And Nate hadn't really gotten another go; while Mr. Weasley was really attached to us, and certainly fond of Nate, Mr. Weasley was not to him what he was to us. "The Gale name is doing pretty well."

"There's a man in a jail cell who might disagree." Nate murmured. _What the hell. _Even for Nate, this was ridiculous.

"Quitit." I hissed at him. He shot me an angry look and I glared at him pointedly; he shook his head after a beat, looking away. I glanced at Cal beside him, who looked concerned; Ellie leaned forward and forced a smile at me.

"Uncle Harry mentioned you did something well at work?" She asked in a strong voice. "Something about warehouses?"

I offered my sister a small smile—Ellie got points for diverting attention from Nate. "Someone's been smuggling pirated things—wands, magical objects, etc—into England, and I figured out where they've been coming through and how they've hid it for so long. My team is hitting it tonight."

"Who is on your team again?" Cal asked; I glanced at him.

"Chris and Halley are team leaders, and then Liam and I are senior field agents, and then Jessie, Ryan and Will are juniors." I reminded him.

"Who're Halley and Jessie?" My best friend Fred asked interestedly, his first words since I'd arrived. I flashed him a glare; he beamed at me, his white teeth bright against his deeply tanned skin. Fred's hair was scarlet, inherited from his Dad and the rest of the Weasley clan, but his ability to tan and his dark eyes had been inherited from his mum, Angelina Weasley.

"Halley's my boss, and she's not available for dating." I said firmly, and I realized that Nate had looked up, too. I rolled my eyes. Of course, the mention of a single woman would bring Nate out of his funk. "And Jessie is a junior and thus busy _every day_." I continued. "I can't imagine when she'd even date."

"You work in an office full of fit girls my age." He pointed out, his expression still making it seem like I'd just killed his cat. "You'd think I'd be allowed to date _one_ of them—"

"I'm actually friends with Halley, do not go there." I snapped at him. Nate rolled his eyes, but looked down at his plate, looking suitably ashamed of himself. Fred, on the other hand, just sat back self-satisfactorily in his chair.

"Oh, Gale family harmony, how lovely it is." My best friend Fred said cheerfully from down the table. "On that note, I agree with Nate. You need to share the love."

"Just because you don't have a girlfriend, Freddie, doesn't mean—" Albus began, and Fred chucked a roll at him; Albus caught it, his seeker reflexes revealing themselves, before tearing off a piece, dipping it in olive oil and taking a bite. "Mm." he said contentedly, and I sighed. I swore, sometimes, I was dating a two-year-old.

"It doesn't seem fair that _Liam _gets to be part of the dating circle of girls at your office but I do not." Fred said shortly. I exhaled, glaring at him

"Liam works there." I retorted. "And there isn't a whole lot of time for Liam to date around. The whole busy-at-work-catching-bad-guys thing." I reached up, pushing a few stray strands of hair out of my face.

"That's legitimate." Albus commented. "I barely see Molly and I live with her." Albus said, reaching out to grab my hand; I turned to him, flashing him a small smile, and Al grinned at me.

"Speaking of," Mrs. Longbottom said, "when are you two getting engaged?" Nate and Fred both snorted in laughter as I felt my face flush as I turned slowly to glare at Augusta. "Come now. Living together just isn't right for a young man and young woman unless they've tied the knot." Mrs. Longbottom looked at me pointedly. "Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?" She mused. Nate made a choking noise.

"I'm not a cow." I said after a moment, completely at a loss on how to address this.

"I'm just _saying, _dear," Mrs. Longbottom began again, raising her eyebrows judgmentally. "He's an _athlete."_

"What does that mean?" I grumbled.

"Soon, Mrs. Longbottom." Albus promised beside me, and I glanced at him, my eyes sharp; he flashed me an embarrassed grin, and I felt a smile work it's way onto my own face. Albus and I had decided not to get married too young—just because we both wanted careers and both wanted to not put too much pressure on ourselves. Consequently, we'd had a few of _these _talks; this was the first time, however, that Al had said _soon._ "Molly and I decided a long time ago to stay together. Just because I haven't given her the ring yet means nothing—" I stared at Albus, catching his wording; he hadn't given me _the _ring yet. Not _a_ ring. _The _ring.

"Means Molly can still marry that nice boy from work. Or the mailman. Or that odd girl with the purple hair two streets over." Mrs. Longbottom corrected, frowning. "Engagements require _rings, _boy." She looked to Mr. Potter. "What have you been teaching your son, Harry?" Mr. Potter was wrestling with a smile as he met Mrs. Longbottom's gaze.

"I apologize that I forgot to train my son in how to treat a lady between patronus charm and dueling lessons." Mr. Potter said faux-solemnly. Mrs. Longbottom held his gaze for a moment before frowning at Albus's dad, and reaching out to swat at his shoulder.

"Don't sass me." She ordered; I snickered as Mr. Potter looked caught halfway between amused and embarrassed. Before Mr. Potter could respond, however, a dog patronus swooped through the open window, galloping up to me and planting it's paws on my lap. "Oh for the love of God." Mrs. Longbottom snapped as she glared at the Mastiff. "They're not supposed to interrupt dinner—" I frowned at Augusta for a moment before the Mastiff opened it's mouth and red light flashed in the room, making everyone jump, and I blinked away the spots in my vision before I recognized the smudged, panicked handwriting curling in the air in front of me.

_51.492488, -0.026734 Urgent_

"Fuck." I murmured under my breath. "Liam sent me coordinates." I muttered, pushing myself to my feet abruptly as I stopped reading; the Mastiff disappeared, folding in on himself in a collapse of light, though the numbers hanging in the air remained. I glanced at Albus, who met my gaze with a frown. "He needs backup, I've gotta go." I swallowed.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked.

"Unclear." I murmured, putting the note down on my plate. I looked up at my siblings' guardian. "I have to go, I'm sorry—"

She surveyed me tiredly. "It's fine, I'll send some food for you home with Albus." Mrs. Longbottom said quietly; I nodded, then looked back to Al.

"I'll see you at home?" I asked softly; he nodded, and I bent down, kissing him lightly. His hand slid to the back of my head, running through my hair before cupping the back of my neck.

"Be careful." He murmured, pulling away to press his forehead to mine. I nodded once, pulling away from Albus and looking to Mr. Potter.

"I'll keep you appraised of the situation." I promised professionally; he nodded once, and I backed up from the table with a glance for Nate. He offered me half a smile as I pulled my wand out and held it tightly, before I pulled my arms in, closed my eyes, thought of the coordinates, and disapparated.

A moment later, the air around me seemed to explode with spells.

I was outside a warehouse, huge crates piled high on each side of me, and on either side of the crates, spells were flying at searing speeds in all different colors. Smoke was clouding the sky, thick and black—something was on fire, nearby, because as I sucked in air, my lungs protested. Shouting was somewhere past the crates in front of and behind me; I recognized one of my teammates' voices beyond the behind crates. I gaped at the hellscape around me, before I turned around, to see Liam crouching on the ground over one of our team leaders, Halley. His hands were on her chest as he straddled her, and for the briefest of moments, I didn't realize what he was doing. I thought maybe that Liam and Halley were having a moment, out here, in this terrible place.

And then I saw her unseeing eyes, the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, and the way she wasn't moving. And I knew.

I crossed to him quickly, smothering the panic that was quickly rising in my lungs as I grabbed my partner's arm; Liam's wild gaze shot up to me, and I looked at him, my eyebrows half-way up my forehead in shock. Panic did this to me—I didn't cry, I didn't scream, didn't shake. I got low and quiet and angry. "What the fuck is going on?" I asked him lowly. "This was supposed to just be a raid—"

Liam exhaled so shakily it might have been a sob.

"No goddamned idea."

* * *

**A/N: **There's chapter 1, folks.


	3. From Eden

From Eden

_Honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago  
Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword  
Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me I should know  
I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door.  
__-Hozier_

"Liam—" I whispered his name hollowly, my chest aching sharply as I stared at him. He was still pounding on Halley's chest, as blood dried at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were open and glassy, unseeing; if she'd been able to see, she would have noticed Liam's wild expression, the complete lack of control happening there. "Liam—" I tried again, because he wasn't saying anything, wasn't stopping. I needed him to stop; he had to stop.

Halley was gone.

"They hit her too many fucking times—" Liam coughed out.

"Liam!" I grabbed his shoulder and shook it, once, hard; Liam's elbow gave out and he jolted forward, so he was only inches from Halley's face. He slammed back upright, pulling his hands back, and clasped them in front of his stomach. He swung his gaze to me, his eyes frozen and wide, and I felt the same instinct rise that did whenever Cal looked at me, the one where I wanted to protect him; Liam looked like a little boy. "We have to go find the others—" I murmured to him. "We can't help Halley." My voice was already a little hoarse, my throat a little swollen. Halley had been the closest thing I'd had to a mentor at the office, a tough-as-nails woman who had just turned thirty.

And now she was dead.

"If I had any fucking idea where the live members of our team were, you think I'd be here?" Liam's voice was a strangled and loud, though not quite a shout. I grabbed the back of his neck and shushed him, bringing my mouth next to his ear.

"If you don't lower your voice, there will be more than one dead member of Alpha team here." I was barely above a whisper, my voice growling out from the very back of my throat. Liam pulled back as if burnt, throwing me an irate look, but I just met his gaze levelly. He didn't have to like me. He just had to get out of here alive, and that wouldn't happen if he kept shouting like a kid having a tantrum.

I straightened up, my knees creaking as I stood up slowly; with one glance down at the heels I'd worn for the dinner, I stepped out of them, then picked them up long enough to place them over to the side. I would be running barefoot on this mission. Lovely.

I reached up, pulling my hair back into a messy ponytail, even as I watched Liam struggle to stand up over Halley. He made it up after a moment, teetering unsteadily, but managed to step over Halley's body and stand facing me, his back to our team leader. He swiped at his face, rubbing his eyes hard, and pulled out his wand, holding it at his side dangerously. I stared at him; if he was going to flip out, I had to know that now.

"What'd they hit her with?" I asked after a beat, my voice empty. My lungs had expanded to scrape against the walls of my chest, though, my stomach churning nauseatingly. My head ached sharply at the sight of the dead woman on the floor. This was the same woman who had antagonized me when I arrived at the department, who'd taught me everything I knew about wand-to-wand combat.

I grated my teeth. I had to keep it together.

"Stupefy." Liam admitted lowly, and the facts he was offering tethered me to the present. "Eight times." I blinked. The most I'd ever heard someone surviving was four times—and even that had been considered something of a miracle.

Eight meant that Halley had been a goner from the get-go.

"Fuck." I murmured, running a hand over my mouth; my hand came away smudged with lipstick. I shook my hand out—I didn't really care if I had lipstick smeared across my cheek—and flicked my wand at Halley. A pale gray-green slipped from my wand and flooded forward, sinking around Halley until it sat on her skin and leaked onto the ground below her, tethering itself there. "No one will move her." I promise Liam lowly. "We can come back once we take care of this."

Liam nodded, and followed as I started back towards the other side, my bare feet padding against the cold cement. I moved closer to the crates, gesturing Liam back towards it as well, my fingers curled tightly around my wand. I stopped, a foot from the broad empty space between this row of crates and the one across from us.

Everything was quiet.

My breathing suddenly sounded loud to my own ears; I swallowed, my stomach churning. Even if the bad guys had fled—which very well might have happened, because killing an auror guaranteed you a dementor's kiss—my team should have been making more noise. We were all trained to be quiet but we weren't ninjas.

"Where did you last see anyone?" I whispered back to Liam, but I kept my eyes on the entrance to our row.

"Ten minutes ago?" I could hear the barely-controlled frustration in Liam's voice. He already knew he didn't have enough information to help us, and it was pissing him off. "Ryan and Will went that way," I glanced back to him and he nodded towards the entry. "Didn't see whether right or left." He shook his head, looking away. "Halley was calling my name."

I swallowed. "Jessie?" My voice was perfectly level. On some level, I wished it hadn't been. I wanted Liam to know that this was killing me too.

"She got separated right off, and Chris went after her." He murmured hoarsely. "We lost track of them the second we popped in."

I shook my head, staring at my partner; Liam met my gaze grimly. This was a _disaster_. "Have you sent for back up?" I asked softly. He raised his eyebrows, then jutted his chin out towards me. I was his back up. _Great_. I shook my head once, then reached up to pull the chain out from under my dress that held a pendant. I tapped my wand to my pendant and it glowed a very soft blue. "_Narro nuntium_." I whispered; the color changed to red. I took a breath. "Fitzroy and Gale at the warehouses, Swann is down without pulse, we have lost the rest of our team, unknown number of belligerents. Back up necessary, _now_." I tapped the pendant again, and it glowed blue again for a beat before going dark. I sighed, lifting my gaze to Liam.

"That's a handy trick." The American-accented voice came from right behind me, and I started, spinning around, my eyes wide and heart thundering as I brandished my wand; beside me, Liam was doing the same thing. A man in a pair of jeans and a dark, long-sleeved t-shirt stood in front of us. I stared at him, trying to memorize his features—prominent nose and brow ridge, big eyes, sharp chin. Brown hair. A baseball cap. "Oh, boy, you guys look so surprised." The man grinned easily, looking between us. "Sorry to scare you." He focused on me. "And you're dressed so _pretty_, honey." He twisted his wand as he tilted his head to the side, but said nothing, and no spell emerged.

"Put your wand down." I ordered, and the words came out scratchy from all of the whispering I had been doing; I made my next word louder for emphasis. "_Now_."

"No fun, no fun." He murmured, his eyes flicking from me to Liam. "You called for re-enforcements too quickly." He noted, looking to Liam. "That's cheating."

"If you don't put your wand down, we'll have to remove it." Liam didn't sound that upset at that idea. "Put it down. Now."

"Liam?" Jessie's voice came from somewhere to our right; I saw the panic play over Liam's face as the man raised his wand at Liam, leveling it with his chest. Liam straightened. The man held a finger to his lips. "Liam?" Jessie asked again. _Shit_.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._ _In. Out._

"_Don't come over here!_" I shouted quickly; the man in front of us cursed, his wand swinging to me, and I hit the deck as light flashed over my head. I scrambled to my feet as Liam shot back, and I waved my wand at the man as I struggled to regain my balance. "_Reducto_!" I cried, slashing at him.

"_Confringo_!" Liam fired at the crate beside the man's head, and it exploded in flames; he shouted and stumbled away, grabbing at his face as the crate billowed black smoke into the corridor and the air above us. So Liam and I did what good junior aurors do when they have to.

We turned, and we ran.

I was out of my heels in the first steps, kicking them off behind me as Liam and I sprinted to the end of our corridor and into the open space at the end of our narrow corridor; we emerged, breathless, skidding to the left to get out of the way of spells that screamed past us.

Except, there were like five guys, out here. Not just the one we had left.

"Mother _fucker_." Liam breathed, his eyes wide, and we stopped dead, our wands on the group. They stood still, three of them with wands out, the remaining two staring at us. This was a really bad impasse. Three vs. two wasn't a blow out, but it wasn't good. And it would be way worse if the remaining two took out their wands.

"There's back up coming, we just have to stall." I whispered after a beat.

"We have to get to Jessie." Liam muttered. "If she's alone—"

"She's with Chris or Ryan or Will probably." I contended, not daring to glance at him.

"If she was with Chris, she wouldn't have called out." Liam snapped; I blew out a breath, glancing at him, only for the smallest fraction of a second. That moment was enough; something exploded in front of us, and we both stumbled back into the containers as shrapnel flew at us, black smoke roaring up around us, blinding me. I coughed, trying to get enough of a breath to perform a spell, but someone's hand closed tightly on my wand arm as I was pulled forward, my wand falling from my fingers.

Oh, hell no.

Wandless, blind and captive was a bad way to be. I lashed out with my bare foot, kicking whoever had my arm where I thought their stomach would be; I made contact with something, and there was a cracking sound and a panicked gasp before my arm was suddenly free. I sucked in a lungful of smoke and coughed again, falling into a crouch as I heard cursing near us, and then there was a muttered countercurse. The air cleared, and I caught sight of my wand, leaping forward for it. My fingers closed around it as a green spell flew over my head; my eyes widened as I lifted my gaze to the men in front of us. That had been an _avada kedavera_. Why were these men trying to _kill _us?

I shook my head as two more curses skidded past me, one nicking my shoulder and the other brushing so close to my face that I was sure I would have bruises. I lifted my wand tip to my neck. I muttered the spell that would make me louder and then focused my eyes on one man, whose wand was trained on me. "_PUT DOWN YOUR WANDS." _My voice roared over the area; I was _done_. Halley was dead. That man had just tried to kill me. _This was supposed to be a raid. _"_MORE AURORS ARE COMING. YOUR ADVANTAGE WILL NOT LAST. SURRENDER NOW, AND YOU WILL BE GUARANTEED SAFETY."_

This man took one step forward and grinned at me, his eyes focused on mine. "We know more are coming, princess." He called across, just loudly enough to be heard. My eyes flashed at the nickname—was that because the media called me Princess Potter? Or because I was crouching here in a cocktail dress? "We're waiting for them." He glanced at one of his men and smiled. I blinked. They were waiting for the others—why? So they could be further outnumbered? A sick feeling grew in my stomach. They had had the advantage this whole time—not just in numbers, but they had known what was going on, the whole time. The man hadn't even been startled to see us, only irritated that we had already called for back up. And they had already killed one of us. But my beacon would stop calling for back-up if I died before back-up arrived. So they couldn't kill me yet, because they wanted more aurors here before they would kill me, and them. The fact that they hadn't found and killed Jessie yet was pure dumb luck. That nauseous part of my stomach pointed out that Chris, Will and Ryan might be dead already. Jessie might be dying.

I couldn't bring more aurors into this. They were going to kill whoever else showed up, and us.

This had never been a raid. This was a trap.

Liam came to the same conclusion I did, at the same time I did, because he started shouting. "_OUT, OUT, GET OUT NOW, GO—_" Liam's voice exploded out behind me magically, and I waved my wand in the strongest shield spell I could muster before I shot to my feet properly. I grabbed Liam's hand and pulled him back towards where Halley's body was. "_APPARATE OUT, PORTKEYS, GET OUT, NOW, NOW, GO FUCKING NOW, DO NOT WAIT FOR US_—"

I grabbed for the necklace beacon as Liam finally cut off his rant, activating it again. _"It's a trap, don't come, they'll kill you—_" Ryan's muted voice was audible and then the quick vacuum sound of apparation, and I cut off as Liam grabbed my wrist and Halley's and then side-alonged both of us.

And then we were spinning into oblivion.

Three seconds later, we landed in the auror department, beside Liam's desk—we were supposed to land on the apparation pads, but in his panic, it was a miracle we had made it to the department at all.

"_It's a trap, don't come, they'll kill you_." My voice, loud and pre-recorded, rung out over the auror offices, my voice tight with panic, with the background noise of creaking metal and spellfire and disapparation. My hand was still on my pendant. Liam's hand was still on my wrist, and Halley's. _Halley_.

"Holy shit." A girl from Beta Team murmured, and I met her gaze, my eyes wide. I was still barefoot. There was blood on my face, I realized, as some of it dripped into my eye. And on my arm. I blinked, looking down at where Liam's hand was still on my wrist; my blood was getting _on him_. And he was bleeding too. "Alpha needs paramedics—Swann is down—"

"She's dead." I said shakily, rising to my feet; once standing properly, I realized that Jessie was across the room, behind a divider between desks. "Jess—" I called out; the younger girl spun around, and Will popped up beside her, his face round and dusty, a cut on his cheekbone. I stared at them over the desk dividers, tears of relief making it hard to see. "Will—"

"Chris is dead too." Jess offered baldly. I sucked in air, staring at her; my lungs screamed at the fresh air that had replaced the smoke.

I pulled my wrist from Liam's fingers, crossing between desks, my barefeet padding along in the near-silence of the auror bullpen, blood sliding down my arm. I stopped between Jessie and Will; Ryan was on the floor between them, his hands tight on his thigh; his knee was a bloody mess. Chris was about a foot up, his unseeing eyes still open, flat on his back. Blood was pooling under him, a visible wound open on his chest. Finally, I let out a breath, and reached up with my bloodied arm, rubbing at my damp eyes. The young ones were okay. Halley and Chris were dead. _This was a disaster._

"Gale?" A Beta team member asked me quietly; I turned around; the bullpen was full, now, of aurors who had been called in when I'd tapped the pendant. A girl—a junior auror like Liam and I, named Mona Saad—was standing in front of me, her hair back in a tight bun. I met her gaze with slightly wild eyes. She didn't react, only holding my gaze levelly. God bless this girl. "What can we do?"

Her question was the right one; I didn't have time to mourn, not yet. Will, Jessie and Ryan had no idea what to do. Ryan was injured. Liam was too distraught over Halley to move. I had to be in charge of this. "I need you to pull Chris and Halley's files, find their nearest blood relatives, and dispatch aurors who _knew them_—that's _really_ important, if you can't find one, let me and Liam know—to their homes. I need you to owl Potter and Weasley and also maybe…yes, definitely whoever the liaison between this office and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is." I took a breath. "And then I need you owl Dean Thomas. He's the chief barrister, his office is—somewhere, I don't remember, maybe the third floor." I swallowed, then looked past Mona, to a boy named Johnny from Gamma. "Nevermind, owls are too slow. _You_ need to go find his office and tell him. Johnny, right?" I asked; he nodded. "Good. Go find Dean Thomas and tell him it's important. If he's in a meeting, pull him." Johnny took off, and I turned back to Mona. "I need you to send a team of at least fifteen people—that's _really important_, too—to the coordinates on the white board above Alpha station." I took a breath. "I'm pretty sure they will have left whenever we did, because we seemed to be the reason they were there, but I'm not certain of it, and they are _ready_ to fight." I rubbed my forehead, staring at her for a moment. "Actually, maybe not. Scratch that. Do not go." I shook my head. "Don't. Not until I get to talk to Potter and Weasley." I swallowed. Was that all? I turned back around dizzily.

"Jessie, Will, grab Ryan and head to St. Mungo's—don't talk to anyone, when they ask what hit him, don't tell them. Do _not _talk about what happened tonight, got it?" Jessie nodded, but Will didn't move, his face turning green. "Will?" I asked after a beat. The kid swallowed once, then bent over where he stood, vomiting on the floor right there. "Fuck." I murmured, stepping forward as I magicked up a bin and waved a wand at the floor. "Okay, nevermind. Jessie is taking Ryan to the hospital alone and Will is going to sit down and someone's going to get him water." Jessie's eyes widened, but I turned away. "Mona, you have to take Chris and Halley to the…" My voice drifted off. "Morgue, I guess." I spun towards where I'd left Liam, then hesitated; both he and Halley were hidden by a divider. Was Liam in any shape to come with us? To be left alone? "Liam's going to go with Halley, I think." I murmured after a moment. I finally turned away, walking away from the kids on my team and the whole crew that had assembled.

"Where are you going?" Mona asked, but it was more curiosity in her voice than anything else.

"I am going to wait in Mr. Potter's office." I said shortly, my voice tense and loud as I passed Liam and Halley; Liam hadn't moved. I couldn't stop for him though, even though I wanted to. I reached the auror desk, standing on tiptoe to snatch down the whiteboard that had the coordinate on it. "Because tonight was a trap. Someone wanted the whole fucking auror office dead, and I am _mad as shit,_" I lifted the white board and brought it down over my knee; it broke in half with a satisfying crack, "that they almost succeeded because _I_ called for back up." I turned away, both halves of the board in my hands. It almost made me feel better to have broken this; I wanted to break more things. I understood the urge to break things quite keenly right now. At least, this, here, I could take care of. There was so much else I couldn't.

Chris and Halley were dead.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting across from Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, Mr. Thomas and I facing them in Mr. Potter's office. Mr. Thomas closed the door behind himself, then tapped the door twice with his wand, a silencing spell encasing the room. My ears popped with the pressure of it.

Finally, Mr. Potter spoke. "It was a trap?" Mr. Potter murmured. I nodded, my gaze hard on him.

"They weren't doing anything." I said shortly. "The men—and they were all men, at least six, because Liam and I took down one in the corridor where Halley died and then ran into five of them in the center of the whole complex—they weren't packing anything. They weren't waiting for deliveries." I swallowed, looking down at the file I was holding in my lap; it was the file that I'd put together on the deliveries, all the work I'd done that had led my team to the trap. _I had led them there_. And I hadn't even been there when Halley and Chris had died. Some team member I was.

"How is that possible?" Mr. Weasley asked after a beat. "You had a _lot _of sources. I looked at your work myself, I thought you'd consulted more people than strictly necessary—" He shook his head, and I knew he was talking to himself. I let out an exhausted breath, shaking my head and looking down at the file again, flipping it open with my good arm. My bad arm was still bloody, still cut, still unhealed. Albus would be mad.

"We need to tell their families." Mr. Potter murmured; I lifted my gaze to him.

"Mona Saad is on it." I murmured. Mr. Potter raised his eyebrows.

"Thanks for taking care of that." He murmured. I shook my head once, looking back down at the file. I'd been so certain this information was good. I'd worked so hard. I ran my good hand down the page of handwriting, the notes I had taken. My bad arm was beginning to ache sharply. I was pretty sure it was cut pretty deep. I really needed a healer.

This information had gotten Chris and Halley killed.

"Someone wanted to kill as many aurors as possible." I said quietly.

"Someone always wants to kill aurors." Dean Thomas murmured exhaustedly.

"Not like this." Mr. Weasley said quietly, shaking his head slowly; we all turned to look at him. "This was about numbers, not specific aurors. They didn't care that much about Alpha team. In fact, they left more than they had to alive."

"I think they were hoping a lot of us would call for back up." I hesitated as soon as I said it, frowning. "Except—the man—one of them told Liam and I we had called 'too quickly'." I swallowed. "It's possible they didn't anticipate us giving up so quickly though I don't know why they would think that we wouldn't do that the moment they killed Chris and Halley." I shook my head. The logs had proven that Ryan had called for back-up, as had Chris, at some point, before he died, though they had just double tapped the alarm instead of sending a message.

"It's possible that they hoped to lure one out with the added bonus of killing several." Mr. Thomas pointed out. Mr. Weasley looked away. He was right, but the thought that Chris and Halley had been cannon fodder for another auror was scary. Mr. Thomas seemed to realize that this conversation was getting dark, because he was the one who continued it. "We'll need to debrief all of you." Mr. Thomas said after a beat. "Separately." I nodded, pressing my lips together.

"And we'll have to take back the crime scene." Mr. Weasley added.

"I'm sorry we ran." I murmured; the man frowned at me. "I thought they were—I knew Halley was dead and Liam and I were separated from Jessie, Will, Ryan and Chris. I knew Jessie was alive. I thought—" I swallowed, remembering the moment that the thought had dawned and made me nauseous. "I thought they might have already killed everyone else. I wanted to make sure Jessie got out."

Mr. Weasley stared at me. "Molly, I wasn't contradicting your call." His voice was firm. "You saved your probationary agents. You saved everyone assembling for back-up. Beta team—you saved them. They would have apparated into that mess and they would have been dead in a heartbeat." He shook his head. "I would have done the same thing. Losing the battle is better than losing ten aurors."

I stared at him, then nodded once. Mr. Weasley glanced at Mr. Potter, who spoke now. "For the time being, I'm naming you head of Alpha. Liam Fitzroy can be your deputy, if you think he's capable." I nodded hurriedly. "I'm going to lend you some juniors. We can discuss that tomorrow, when I debrief you."

"I could go now." I murmured, straightening up. Mr. Potter fixed me with a look.

"You need to go to a healer." He told me shortly. "Tonight."

"I know." I said wearily, looking down at my arm. The blood had largely dried. But it was still bleeding just a little, which was really not good, considering it had been like half an hour since I'd gotten the injury.

"Then you're dismissed." I rose carefully, trying not to jostle my arm. I turned away and opened the door, slipping out; my ears popped again as I left the silence spell. I closed the door behind me and crossed to the Alpha desks, sinking down in my chair silently. I felt the eyes of a few of the others on me, but none of them were important—Liam had disappeared, as had Halley and Chris's bodies. Jess should have been at the hospital with Will and Ryan. _She needs help there_, my brain tried to push me upward, but I just stayed seated. I didn't care that Jess and Will and Ryan were lacking in supervision and Ryan was probably going to be admitted and as his team leader I should have been there.

Chris and Halley were dead, and I just wanted Albus.

* * *

I re-entered my apartment, shoeless and yet unhealed, ten minutes later. I had stepped out of the floo into my living room, where Albus, Fred and Nate were each seated on my couches. My three boys had tea cups in front of them, untouched, and were all still in the suits from dinner. My arrival was met with three sharp gazes.

"Holy shit." Albus said, pushing himself to his feet first; he surged forward, but instead of sweeping me up in a hug, he gently grabbed my wrist, pulling my arm out. "You need a healer—" He murmured, inspecting the wound. "This is really deep. And is this a bruise?" He demanded, looking up at me, frowning. The moment his green eyes met my blue ones, though, I fell over the edge. I heaved in a breath and my eyes filled with tears. "Molly?" Albus demanded, panic now in his voice; I just shook my head as the tears spilled over, tracking down my face. Albus studied me for a long moment. "Molly, sweet, you are scaring me." He murmured, reaching out to touch my cheek. "Please tell me what's going on." I sobbed, but pulled away, reaching up with one arm to wipe at my face like a toddler. Nate was still on the couch, his whole body tight, bracing for impact. He knew I had something bad to say. Nate was smarter than all the rest of us.

"Chris and Halley are dead." I said hoarsely. Albus fell back a step, the blood draining from his face. "That raid tonight—it was a trap." I sucked in air. "It was a trap for as many aurors as possible and my team happened to walk into it, and they waited for me to call for backup because they wanted _more people there to kill._" I sucked in air. "They just wanted to kill us." I shook my head. "It wasn't a raid, it was a trap. There were no dark objects." I shook my head again. I was trying to clear it, or understand what had happened. But nothing came to me. "I don't know how I could have been so wrong."

My boys stared at me.

"I don't know how I could have been so wrong." I repeated. No one moved. No one spoke.

Chris and Halley were _dead_.

* * *

**A/N:** How's this story going, kids? I wrote three thousand words in like three hours today. That is a crazy way to live.

Happy Sunday!


	4. I Wanna Get Better

I Wanna Get Better

_So I put a bullet where I shoulda put a helmet  
__And I crash my car cause I wanna get carried away _  
_That's why I'm standing on the overpass screaming at myself,_  
_"Hey, I wanna get better!"_

-Bleachers

"Molly." Albus said sleepily from the doorway to our bedroom. I glanced up at him, feeling guilt flash over my face before I carefully controlled my expression into apathy. Albus also looked like he was controlling his expression towards calm. He took a deep breath, his bare chest expanding lightly. "What the _fuck _are you doing at _five _AM on the floor of our _living room_?"

I looked down at what I had spread around me. Photos from the lot by the water. Of the bruises on my arm, the scratches I'd left on Liam's, the cut on Will's face, the wound on Ryan's leg. Sketches of those among the men that we'd been able to describe. All of our statements. The original file that had led us to the trap. A record of our calls for help, from Chris, Ryan, and, finally, me.

I probably had 200 pages of information here, and nothing was any clearer.

I reached up and rubbed my face haphazardly. If I'd been a boy, I would have had several days stubble on my cheeks; as it was, my legs were progressing from the prickly stage into the straight-up hairy stage of leg hair growth. I needed to shave. Badly. "I didn't mean to wake you up." I said after a beat to Al, letting my hands drop to the carpet helplessly. My boyfriend sucked in slow breath.

Five days since the accident, and we still knew nothing.

"I always wake up when you get out of the bed, crazy girl." He murmured, stepping forward carefully; he navigated between paper piles until he was out of space, and then he ducked down, picking up the picture of the bruises on my arm. He studied it for a long moment before he shook his head absently, looking down past it at the scratches on Liam's arm. He crouched down, picking up the shot, frowning at it. "What…" He asked softly, dragging his fingers along it. "Did you scratch him?"

I hesitated, then pressed my lips together. "I'm not supposed to talk about it until the investigation is over." I murmured. Albus's eyebrows shot up.

"Have I mentioned I hate your job?" He asked after a moment, his voice as soft as mine. I half smiled at him.

"You might have. Once or twice." I looked down at the papers. "I have to go back tomorrow." I offered, my voice odd as I picked up the photo of Will. Will had not managed to school his expression in time for this photo. He looked terrified. Merlin.

"You don't have to." Albus murmured, and I let my head sag to one side, fixing him with a look. "You don't. This is a voluntary job. You're not an indentured servant, no one in my family would care—"

"I'm in charge of Alpha team." I murmured. "We just lost two team members, I can't quit now, it will be—" I shook my head. "The team will collapse. Not even because I'm that important, because Liam could lead, but—" I fell silent as Al's eyes darkened. "The office will be a nightmare tomorrow but that doesn't mean I can leave." I finished softly.

Al turned his head, looking to the fire that was always burning in our fireplace, carefully magicked to stay in place. "You don't have to stick out all shitty things. You're allowed to call it quits, sometimes." Albus murmured, and I watched him, willing him to look back at me. I hated these goddamned conversations. Because I was talking about my job. And he was talking about my dad.

"I know it was hard for you when I got hurt." I said tightly; his gaze snapped to me. We almost never talked about this. _Yeah, well, Albus couldn't keep doing this._ "And I'm sure this," I waved a hand at the folders around me, "brought you back to fifth year." I reached up, pushing my hair out of my face. "But this is not that. I am _trained_ for this, Albus. This is my _job_. And, yeah, I get hurt at it sometimes, but I hurt _back_, now." I lowered my voice. "I'm sorry you have to live with this, and I know I signed up for this and you did not." I swallowed. "But this is not like before. I will _never_ let that happen again, you know that."

Albus did not look convinced. "What if I said that wasn't enough?" Albus asked after a moment, his voice very, very low. He spoke barely above a whisper. I stared at him. "What if I said I wanted you to quit anyway? What if I asked you to quit?"

I frowned at Albus. I didn't like the hypothetical. I didn't like my answer, either. "I would quit." I admitted. He sighed, his shoulders dropping, and we were both silent for a long moment. Finally, he shook his head.

"I'm not asking that." He reached up, scrubbing at his face hard. "Merlin." He put his hands on the floor and lightly pushed himself to his feet. He stood up with a wince, then turned to offer me a hand. I looked at it guardedly.

"You can't ask me theoreticals." I murmured. Albus took a heavy breath.

"I really, really don't want to fight at five in the morning." Albus murmured. "Can't we just go back to bed?" He asked, keeping his hand out. I looked down at the papers around me, and I finally sighed, reaching up and taking his hand. He pulled me up carefully, then tugged me to him finally, releasing my hand only to wrap his arms around my waist. I ducked my forehead against his chest, right below his neck, and he rested his chin on my head. "I will be so mad if you get yourself killed at this job." He whispered to me.

"That won't happen." I promised him softly, raising my hands to his chest and pressing my palms there, just enough to tilt my head back to look at him. He looked down at me with a beatific smile. He didn't believe a word I said. "It won't." I protested softly.

"Did Chris think it would?" Albus murmured. I swallowed, knowing the answer. Of course, Chris hadn't. Chris's wife hadn't. I had seen her at the funeral—it had been terrible. It was too easy to imagine Albus in her position. Especially considering we had no idea how this had happened.

Albus must have realized how hard his question had hit because he let out a breath, stepping back from me, grabbing my hands with both of his. I stared at him. "Let's go to bed now, yeah?"

"I'm sorry about all of this." I offered shakily. Albus smiled slightly, shaking his head.

"I signed up for this. All of this. You." He shrugged. "I'm all in if you're all in. I just wish you weren't." I looked down, my eyes landing on the picture of Will's face, the dead look in his eyes.

Sometimes, I wished I wasn't all in too.

* * *

The next morning, I slipped into my dark jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, sliding into my knee-high boots easily. I grabbed a sweatshirt from the back of my door, leaned over Albus to press my lips to his—he mumbled something sleepily that sounded suspiciously like _love you_—and stepped out of my bedroom, closing the door behind me.

It was time to go back to work.

I grabbed my wand and my bag, before I flicked my wand at the mess of folders on the floor; the papers arranged themselves neatly in a pile. I bent over to pick them up, tucking them under one arm and reaching up to run a final hand over my hair, turning back to the mirror across from our fireplace. I was running late this morning—had done so intentionally, because my bed was too comfortable and too warm—but only by about two minutes. I really didn't want to go to work.

But this wouldn't get better until I did.

I took a deep breath and crossed to the floo, grabbing a handful of floo powder. I threw it down and stepped into the green flames. "Auror Office, Ministry of Magic." And then I was off.

A moment later, I emerged into the bullpen, ducking my head as I crossed between desks. Juniors from other teams—including a kid that Liam and I had started with—scattered as I passed them, falling silent. _Idiots_.

"Morning." Ryan said dutifully as I walked up to our cluster of desks. Chris and Halley's desks had been whisked away, so it was just me, Liam and Ryan at one cluster, and Jessie and Will in another.

I dropped my bag on my desk then sank into my chair, looking at Liam across the desk. He met my gaze reluctantly, his mouth pulled into a frown. "Morning, team." I said quietly. I glanced from Liam to Ryan. "How's your leg?"

Ryan hesitated. "Fine." He paused, and I kept my gaze on him. "How's your arm?" His voice was odd; he wasn't sure it was his place to ask that question. I rewarded him with half of a smile.

"I'm fine." I said shortly.

"Wes said you were badly hurt." Liam finally spoke, but didn't look up from his desk. I hadn't seen him, or the rest of them, at the funeral; I had walked in with the Potters, which usually meant I was too busy being Albus Potter's girlfriend. Even at Auror department events, even at funerals, my boyfriend's last name meant more than my job.

"Wes is overdramatic." I said quietly, an edge to my voice. Liam met my eyes, and I swallowed at the misery there.

"You could barely move it." Liam murmured. "They hit you with sectusempra." I stared at Liam; had they? I didn't remember that, but it had been so fast.

"I got away from that guy on my own." I reminded him after a moment, my voice light; we weren't supposed to talk about it, but all of Alpha had been there. It wasn't like I was giving away too much. "I wasn't that badly off—"

"What guy?" Will asked quietly, and I glanced at him; the younger boy was frowning worriedly at me. I swallowed, looking back to Liam for a second.

"One of the men tried to…" I hesitated. Grab me? He had succeeded at that. Had he wanted to separate me? Just get me farther from Liam? "He grabbed me. I tried to keep a hold of Liam but I couldn't hold on." I looked down at my desk, fiddling with papers there busily.

"Was he trying to abduct you?" Ryan's demanded, his voice angry.

"I think so." Liam said quietly.

"So this was a Potter thing?" Jessie asked. At this, we all looked up at her. She blinked. "I just mean—you're—" she hesitated. "You're high-profile." She finished softly.

I made a growly noise in the back of my throat but didn't say anything to her. She flushed. "I'm sorry." She muttered after a beat.

"She's not wrong." Liam said irritably; I glanced sharply at him. "You shouldn't be in the field."

At this, my eyes narrowed. "He didn't say my name—"

"He called you princess." Liam countered. I glared full-out at him; of course, Liam hadn't missed that.

"I showed up with straightened hair, face full of make up, a pair of heels, and a _cocktail dress_." I snapped at him; this was _the most confusing argument_. Why the fuck did Liam care if he called me princess? The threat wasn't clear; that was the only criteria for pulling aurors from field duty. "He would have called me Princess Potter if he meant anything by it."

Liam shook his head, getting up and standing behind his desk, his jaw tight. "You're putting yourself in danger by not reporting this properly—"

"And you are _crossing the line_." I hissed, glaring at him. "Those idiots at that fucking raid were more interested in my auror status than my boyfriend's last name." Liam's eyes flashed.

"Those_ idiots_ grabbed you and tried to pull you away." He spat at me, his volume already too loud; I felt the eyes of the rest of the bullpen. "Those _idiots_ killed Halley and killed Chris! What do they have to do before they're not idiots, and they're just the threat they are!"

I stared at Liam speechlessly. We weren't supposed to talk about what had happened, and we were both breaking that rule. But telling the bullpen that a guy had tried to grab me—that was bad. There were tons of people in here.

"Liam." I said lowly, my voice carefully level now. "I already have a boyfriend who hates me doing my job. My coworkers hating me doing my job is just proper insane. Now. It's well mint that you want to take care of me, but I'm a big girl and can take of myself, and I've already talked Albus off the ledge this morning. Now. If you could just _shut up_ about everything, we could do our jobs." I looked down at the desk, determinedly studying the papers there.

There was a long minute of silence before Liam turned and stalked towards the locker rooms. I made a point of not glancing after him, instead looking up to Ryan, who was staring at me.

"Are you from Manchester?" He asked after a beat. I blinked at him; that had not been the expected question.

"Not really." I said after a moment, definitively. "Or—the Gales are. I grew up in Nottingham before Hogwarts. My mom and step-father and step-brother still live there." I hesitated, then decided to say no more lest I get bogged down in my life story; asking where I was from was a more loaded question than for most people. The Gales were from Manchester but Dad had gone to uni in Nottingham with Mum, and they'd both settled there. I'd grown up there, until I was eleven, when I began spending 10 months of the year at Hogwarts in Scotland, and then at sixteen, I'd moved into Fred Weasley's home in Southern England, while most of my siblings grew up in London, and I spent a significant chunk of my time there and at the Potter Estate outside of London.

Like I said. Loaded.

"You said 'it's well mint.'" Ryan said quietly. "That's Manchester."

"Your mom remarried?" Jessie asked. I twisted to look at her, my eyebrows drawing together.

"Yes." I answered flatly. "Now. If we're done with questions about my life, which everyone knows I _love_," I shot Jessie a pointed look and she blushed. "I want everyone to do a round of wand-to-wand before we try out actual auroring again. Whichever one of you loses both rounds will do the paperwork tonight." I looked around at Jessie and Ryan. "Jess and Ryan, you guys are first. Go change. Will, hang back a min."

Jessie and Ryan both got up, following Liam's path towards the locker room. I waited until they were out of earshot before I turned to Will. The kid was watching me with flat eyes. Will _never_ had flat eyes. Will was too animated, too everywhere, too much. And now he was doing this. This was scary. "You okay?" I asked bluntly. He shrugged. I crossed to the desk Jessie had vacated, sinking down in my chair. "Will." I said after a moment, my voice softer. He held my gaze. "What's going on?"

He shrugged again, and I sighed. "Here's the deal, Will." I said quietly. "You don't have to talk to me. You don't have to talk to anyone. However. That's a really lonely deal. I've been there, I've tried it, and it sucks." I pursed my lips, studying the younger boy. Will was twenty to my twenty two, to Jessie's nineteen. So young. "Also, if you talk to me, there is less chance I will report you for mental status change to Potter, which comes with mandatory therapy, which will be way worse than talking to me this one time. So."

Will looked down. "I'm fine." He murmured. I let out a breath, and his chin shook once. I hesitated—was Will really _that _near tears?—before he repeated himself. "I'm fine." This was such a poor show, but I didn't want to call him on it. We all didn't feel up to it today. But we'd all come in, and that was what mattered.

"Okay." I murmured. "If you need another day, let me know, okay?" He nodded, but said nothing. "Okay, go join Jess and Ry. Don't lose." Will stood up, and I let him pass me before I leaned back in the chair, leaning my head back to stare at the ceiling.

I had been head of Alpha for about 15 minutes and already had had a fight with my deputy and failed at reaching out to a probationary agent.

This was not going so well.

* * *

"This is the file." I said heavily, dropping it on the table around which my team was clustered, three hours later. I had hijacked the conference room so that we could have a private space to look at everything.

Training was done; getting back in the game was done. I was the head of a team that looked like it couldn't sleep at night, much less fight bad guys. I wasn't interested in small potatoes; I didn't care if other team leaders' would have done this differently. I didn't have what they had. I had a bunch of kids—of whom, somehow, I was the oldest, at 22 (_how). _I had a file that I couldn't show to anyone else, and no leads.

Silence fell as everyone leaned forward, flipping through their files. Liam paused on the photo of his arm, and Jessie, beside him, leaned over to look at it, frowning as she did. "How did this happen?" She asked. Liam lifted his accusatory gaze to me, and I glared at him to silence him. I was not interested in another self-righteous tirade. Of all of the overprotective assholes in my life, I was _really not into _this new trait of Liam's.

"Don't worry about it." I said pointedly.

Will leaned over to look at it too, and then snickered. "Looks like Molly scratched him in the bedroom, then..." He muttered. I blinked, surprised, and then Jessie snickered, and Ryan looked outraged, and Liam shoved Will, and, finally, relief exploded in my chest. This was our Will—this was the idiot that could put innuendo into anything.

"I've got a boyfriend, moron." I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't help the smile of relief on my face.

"Like I would ever date _Molly_." Liam finished flatly. I glared at him.

"Thanks." I said sourly. Liam glared pointedly at me, and I rolled my eyes.

"Even if you and Al broke up," Liam began, and I swallowed, "our bosses would _kill _me. Immediately." He shook his head.

"Potter and Weasley would not kill you." I said witheringly, looking back down at my own packet. "If anything, they would kill me. Their family has taken care of mine for actual years only for me to _not _marry their son? That's a bad one."

There was silence in the room. "You're _marrying _Albus?" Liam demanded after a beat, and I willed the flush on my face to die down. "_Molly_." Liam's voice was already jumping back to hostile; Jesus, this boy need to get a handle on himself.

"We've talked about it." I said quietly, glancing up at Liam. "He kind of implied he bought the ring the other day." I shrugged, one corner of my mouth pulling up into a smile unwillingly. Liam opened his mouth and then closed it, before he let out a breath and grinned at me, his shoulders dropping from where they'd been defensively perched all day.

"I wanna be in the wedding." He asserted. "I have been friends with both of you since we were all eleven, I was his roommate for years, _I want in_. Albus's groomsmen or something—"

"You want to be in the wedding?" I demanded flatly. "You want to be in _our _wedding? You, Liam Fitzroy, want to be—"

"Why is this so hard to understand?" Liam snapped.

I snorted. "Maybe because your patience for life things is minimal." I said shortly. "_I _barely even want to be in my wedding. Weddings are a pain in the ass." I shrugged.

"I want to be in your wedding." Liam repeated, enunciating carefully. I made a face at him.

"Let's wait for Albus to propose before I make him add guys to the wedding party, yeah?" I pointed out. Liam rolled his eyes, looking back down to the folder in front of him, and he flipped past the photo to the first statement in his packet. I looked back down at my own packet, flipping through the papers but feeling my eyes glaze over. I'd read everything here. One million times.

"I was thinking we could just follow up on the sources I used to find the warehouse to begin with." I said vaguely. "I spoke to like three people and they all led me there—"

"Basil Nejem, Emmy Botterill and Oliver Reaver." Liam finished. "Were they dangerous?" He asked, and I shook my head, glancing up at him.

"Nejem's a goods dealer but Botterill's just a healer who lives in the area and Reaver is the manager for the storage complex." I shrugged, swinging my gaze to the team "You and me can take Nejem and then the three of you can track down Reaver, then Botterill?"

"I can go alone to see Botterill." Will offered. I pursed my lips, studying him. "She's a healer, right? She's probably at work, which means I'll be in a hospital full of people. I can definitely handle her. It's not like she'll be dangerous—"

"Why wouldn't she be dangerous?" Liam demanded in a dangerously low voice. I glanced at him, raising my eyebrows, but he didn't even look at me. "Or have you completely forgotten that someone tried to kill us all earlier this week."

The room got horribly silent, and I mentally cursed as I reached up to rub my forehead. We'd been on such a good note.

"I didn't mean—" Will's voice was very small, suddenly.

"I don't _give a fuck what you meant_, Will!" Liam slammed his hand into the table and stood up while Will stayed seated, scrambling backwards in the chair; he was going to hit Will.

"_Liam—" _I bit the word out as I my folder on the table and leapt towards him, walking around the table in two seconds flat. I grabbed Liam's shoulder and turned him back towards me as I slid in front of him, then turned back to him, putting both of my hands on his chest. My eyes flashed as I stared at him.

He sucked in a breath, realizing he was in trouble. "Molly—"

I shook my head, cutting him off. "Hallway." I said sharply. "_Now_." I didn't want to embarrass Liam, and I knew that we'd had a shitty week. But this was bad.

Liam glowered, not moving, and I felt a twinge of fear somewhere in my chest. "You don't understand!" Liam finally exploded at me; I didn't move a muscle, even if all of my instincts were screaming for me to take a step back.

"Liam." I said lowly, holding up my hands in a surrender position, keeping eye contact. "You need to lower your voice."

Liam was breathing heavy, staring at me. When he didn't speak, I took another step toward him; we were very close, now. "Hallway." I repeated, quietly, cursing myself for sounding so sharp before. I had forgotten the one rule about fighting with Liam. Never match him, volume for volume.

He turned away, and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding before following him out. Liam slammed the door open so hard that it hit the wall, hard, and I let him, closing the door softly behind me. I turned to him, keeping my hand on the doorknob, watching him back as he walked halfway down the hallway and then turned and started back. He was trying to walk off some of this anger. That was good.

"Liam." I said quietly. "What are you doing?"

"I didn't mean to—" He reached up, scrubbing his face with both hands. "Will is just _such a little shit_, y'know? And sometimes I can laugh at it but I am _really _not down for laughing, today."

I watched him calculatingly. If I reported this incident—even without a recommendation for desk duty—Liam would certainly get a psychiatric evaluation. I didn't want that. He was my partner. Moreover, Alpha couldn't afford to lose any more people. I'd been half bluffing when I'd threatened to report Will. If we lost one more person, we would have to be out of commission, or just be an accessory to the other teams. Beta would be bumped up to Alpha, and we would probably never get that title back.

And if I didn't report Liam, there was a chance that the next time he lost it, we would be in the field.

"Will is definitely a little shit." I agreed tonelessly; Liam's nervous gaze flew to my face, and I studied him. "But that, in there, was, at most, annoying." I murmured. "What are you _doing_?" I repeated my question.

Liam stopped walking, his nervous energy focused on me. "He's going to get himself killed with an attitude like that." He retorted.

"Then tell him to stop acting like that." I murmured. "Don't just lose your shit on him. He's just a dumb kid." I stared at him. "Make him smart. That's our job. We make them smart, just like Halley and Chris made us smart." Liam's crazy energy was fading, now. "You almost _hit_ Will, in there. And we can't have that." I shook my head. "You have to talk to a therapist."

Liam opened his mouth to protest, and I scowled at him seriously. "Liam, you are fucking lucky I'm not reporting you to Potter." I let out a breath, making the decision as I said it. "You're a deputy. You can't hit probationaries. You can't come close to hitting probationaries. You can't _think_ about hitting probationaries. You just can't."

Liam huffed defensively, reaching up to run his hands through his hair. "I didn't mean to." He hissed.

"I know." I said calmly. "But that's not enough." Liam stared at me. "Therapy. At least once a week. I mean it, Liam. You're an angry guy but this isn't you, and I know that. So get back to angry guy. Work through whatever this is."

"Whatever this is—" He retorted, and I just licked my lips. Finally, Liam swallowed, tugging on his black t-shirt. "I was sleeping with Halley. That's what this is. I was sleeping with her, and now she's dead." He shrugged wildly, the frenetic energy back. This was too much for him to say.

"You _what_?" I snapped.

"I was sleeping with Halley!" Liam whisper-shouted. "What do you want me to—" He shook his head, biting off his own words.

"Okay." I said hollowly. This was not okay. "Okay. You were sleeping with Halley. Okay—" I paused. This made so much sense. No wonder Liam had lost his shit. He'd been sleeping with Halley, and then he'd been trying to resuscitate her in a fucking corridor while hiding from men trying to kill him, too.

I had to desk him.

I turned away, crossing my arms against my chest. I didn't want to desk Liam. That would be _really _bad for him. It was a bad mark on your record. It was worse for your reputation. Especially if it got out that he got desked because he'd been sleeping with Halley—that wasn't allowed. At all. It was bad between equals—it was way worse that Halley had been his boss. Shit. If Alpha team went under, which, frankly, it was looking like it would have to, Liam would need to transfer to another team. He was great at his job. He didn't deserve to not get another place in the department because he'd been sleeping with Halley and then Halley had gotten killed. But something had to be done. _Goddammit, Liam_.

"Okay, change of plans." I said, wheeling back around to face him. He stared at me. "You are going to a therapist, _tonight_. I will find one at St. Mungo's who won't tell anyone you're seeing them. They will be unaffiliated with the Ministry." I swallowed; I couldn't risk sending him to one that was affiliated. I knew there were laws protective patient confidentiality, but I wasn't dumb. People talked. And gossip about a dead woman and her subordinate would be too much for a lot of the idiots here. I needed a good person who would keep his or her mouth _shut_. "You will see them twice a week. You will tell this extremely confidential therapist to send me a memo everytime you've seen 'em—I don't need to know how you're doing, I just need to know you _are _doing. If you skip a session without a good reason, I will _kill_ you and then report you. Got it?" I asked. Liam stared at me.

"I don't need to be babysat—" He began irritably.

"Fine. I'll report you, and you'll get publicly desked. Everyone will find out you were sleeping with Halley." I offered sarcastically. He glared at me, then nodded.

"Fine." He muttered.

"Fine." I repeated. "Now. Take another minute and then we'll go back in and you will be gruff but loveable to Will, okay?" I glared pointedly at him. He nodded mutely. "Do you need water?"

Liam's eyes flashed. "You're not my mother!" He exploded.

"Thank God for that! If I was, I'd be _beating you senseless by now_—" I snapped.

"Uh, guys." Mr. Weasley's voice came from down the hall, and we both spun around to face my boyfriend's uncle. He raised his eyebrows, amusement making him grin at us, and I recognized his single dimple from Albus's face. "Don't love it when members of Alpha team yell at each other. In the hallway."

"Sorry." Liam muttered.

"Sorry, Mr. Weasley." I said louder than him, forcing a tight smile.

"You can call me Ron, Molly." He offered. "I was your guardian…"

"Not at the office." I insisted, sticking my chin out. "Same rule with Mr. Potter. And I'm living with his son."

Mr. Weasley barked out a laugh. "Whatever you want, sweetheart." He turned back around and re-entered the door he'd emerged from; his office.

I resisted the urge to correct him. He called me sweetheart for the most mundane of reasons—genuine affection. But it still didn't do wonders for making me seem less like the boss's kid's girlfriend.

"Sweetheart." Liam snickered behind me. I wheeled around, glaring.

"Shut up." I hissed. He turned away, but he looked less tightly wound. That was good. I'd give him another half minute, and then we'd go back in. And I would try to forget that Halley, my mentor, had been sleeping with Liam, my partner, and that I wasn't reporting it.

I'd had better plans.

* * *

**A/N:** so this chapter is later than I planned to put it up... mostly because it's been hard to write. Also because some stuff has been happening in my real life which has been of questionable levels of good. But really happy people are rarely good writers, so I'll take this as a good sign for my writing.

Anyway. Shoutouts to my reviewers:

**As the Robin Flies**

**valderois**

**Molivline**

**Lucy Greenhill (all three chapters! thanks girl XD )**

**N3v3rm0r311949**

**potterblacklupin-4ever**

**Fionamoi (all three chapters again-damn i feel popular)**

**Letters From No One (v sweet review. Thank you so much.)**

**Auzie Ninja**

**Allen Pitt -special shout out to you! you followed Left Unsaid from the get go and now you're here. That's a level of dedication that I am unbelievably flattered at. Seriously-thank you!**


	5. Love Lust

Love Lust

_I always imagined you'd be by my side  
Whether I'm hiding in the city or tearing through the wild  
You're only an older noose on my throat  
If your beauty is a fortress then my love will be the moat.  
Oh, fall in love with her. Fall in love with you, I must.  
-King Charles_

"So." Albus began the next night, bouncing up on his heels as he met my gaze in the mirror. "What's your favorite food?"

I shot him a weird look. "What?"

"What is your favorite food?"

I stared at my boyfriend for a long moment, my hairbrush falling to my side in a limp hand. He was in his practice uniform; orange shorts, a t-shirt that had _Cannons _written across it. His socks were orange. His shoes were orange. I often lamented the fact that my boyfriend couldn't have chosen a team with better colours.

"Italian." I said after a beat. "I guess pasta. I don't know. Why?"

Albus made a hmming noise and turned to pass me; I side-stepped into his path, pressing a hand lightly to his chest and looking up at him from under my eyelashes. I sidled closer to him, pressing his hip into my stomach lightly, my leg sliding between his, my hip brushing him _there_ and Al's pupils exploded in size. "_Molly_—"

"Why are you asking?" I said softly, barely above a whisper.

"I thought we could get dinner." He murmured. I studied him.

"We always get dinner. We live together. You don't need to schedule dinner." I murmured. He barely shrugged.

"I want to go to a place with a reservation." He murmured.

"So fancy." I murmured; Albus broke, ducking down to press his lips to mine, and I pulled away an inch, grinning when he made a growly noise. "Albus…" I weighed the possibilities here. I hadn't forgotten about our conversation immediately before the shitshow raid; Albus had said _the _ring, not _a _ring. Did this have to do with that? "Why do you want to go to a fancy dinner?"

"Because." He murmured. "Boyfriends and girlfriends do that sometimes."

"We never do that." I corrected. He reached to cup my cheek, pushing some hair out of my face, so gently that a shiver slid down my spine. Albus was always this tender but now I thought he was doing it as a distraction. Which was totally unfair.

Well, two could play at that game.

I slid closer yet to him, which just pressed my lower half against him, then slid my hand up to cup the back of his neck, sliding my fingers in the soft black hair there. I shifted against his hips and grinned when his shoulders twitched back instinctively. "Albus…" I breathed. "Please?"

"You are such a cheater." He whispered, and half of my mouth drew upward before my boyfriend ducked down to cover his lips with mine. His hands slid onto my back and he walked us back, one step, two steps, until my back was flush against the wall. I kissed him hungrily, my lungs collapsing on themselves as my heart jumped into my throat. I slid one hand down his back slipped it under his t-shirt and let my fingers slide up his spine; when he reached for the buttons of my shirt, though, I pulled back, catching my breath as I shot him a long look. "I have work." I murmured. "You have work. We can't show up with…" He pressed his lips to mine again, and I allowed it, my stomach twisting happily. _Work_. I reminded myself insistently as Albus successfully undid one of the buttons on my blouse and began to struggle with the next one, and I pushed him away finally; he fell back a step.

"_Mol_-ly." He dragged my name out. I grinned at him.

"You're the one who started it." I told him impertinently. Albus pouted down at me, my back still against the wall. Finally, he ducked down for a final kiss before turning back to the mirror, straightening his shirt. I watched him fondly, chewing on my bottom lip.

I loved this boy. And he had a ring and wanted to take me out to dinner, and I thought I knew what that meant. He loved my family, and I loved his. I could easily see myself spending my life with him. But getting engaged at 22?

I wasn't sure that was a good idea.

Albus met my gaze in the mirror and grinned childishly at me. I beamed back at him, my smile unfurling slowly across my face. The idea didn't leave my mind, though, even as happiness exploded in my stomach and provided a cover. I did love this boy. Being engaged to him would be okay.

I wasn't dumb; I knew that at least subconsciously, my fear of being engaged was my fear of repeating the past. My dad had gotten my mum pregnant with me at university. They'd gotten married because that was what people did. They'd had more children because that was what people did. Except Dad was a man of many stressors and having five children under nine was not unstressful, or inexpensive. So, Dad abused me, and hated himself, and me, and Mom. We spun out of control.

And I can just imagine, that in another world, my parents had a fling at school and separated as so many do. Mum never got pregnant with me, married another man who never hit her or her children; Dad got a better education, finished up school properly. Waited a few years to have maybe one kid. Maybe that kid wouldn't have had magic. There was an alternate universe where my parents were happy. And that meant, by definition, I didn't exist.

I loved my siblings, and I loved my life now, but if I had a choice, I would have diverted everyone from the impending disaster back in their years at university.

But Albus wasn't Dad. I wasn't Mum. We were different. We were in love. _So were they_. I reminded myself. My family's horror story had begun innocuously. They all did. A pregnant girl at university, and a well-meaning boy. My dad wasn't a sociopath. He didn't enjoy hitting us. He hadn't meant to destroy us. There were so many stories like ours, so many other parents and kids out there, because it was the easiest trap in the world to fall into. The first time was the cracking of the dam. Because that first time had been an accident, and the tenth time hadn't. The Gales weren't the exception. We were the rule.

I just had to make sure I was the exception, this time.

* * *

"I am _really _bored." Will offered me irritably that afternoon, lying down on the wall we had been lounging on for an hour. I rolled my eyes. I'd spent a lot of time with Will in the four days since Liam's _little_ _outburst_, which was what I had been sarcastically calling it. To myself. Since I couldn't bring myself to report him, or Will.

Liam had already been to the therapist twice, which was something, kind of. It hadn't helped yet, but that wasn't really how therapy worked, was it? Liam still couldn't stand Will, however, so I'd elected to separate them whenever possible.

Which, unfortunately, meant that, in an effort to keep the peace, I had to take Will to find sources with me, and Liam had taken Jessie and Ryan. Both Jess and Ryan had shot me dirty looks but gone along with it. And Liam had shot me the dirtiest look of all. Because his being alone with Jessie and Ryan meant being the third wheel to a party of sexual tension.

"Molly…" Will dragged out my name.

"What?" I snapped, glancing at him over the latte I'd been nursing. It was cold but not horribly so in Bishop Auckland, a town south of Durham that my source was meeting us in. Will and I were pretending to be on a date, so I'd donned a pair of sunglasses and pulled my hair back in an effort to be less obviously Molly Gale. It was one thing when we were in the field; truly, context saved me from a lot of recognition. For all that everyone knew I was an auror, criminals were still too busy getting their asses kicked to notice my identity.

"I'm bored." Will offered again.

"That is not my responsibility." I muttered irritably, my gaze sweeping the street—there was a café about ten meters to our left, which had supplied my coffee. "Where _is _Basil?" I murmured. He was only ten minutes late, but even that was surprising for Basil.

Basil Nejem had been the clincher for the raid. He was the antiques/illegal goods dealer who had promised me that he had personally seen the illegal goods in the crates. He'd promised that was the pick up night. And I wanted to know if he had been lying to trap us or if he had been just as misled as we had.

"Basil isn't coming." Will said flatly.

"He has to." I muttered.

"He would be here by now." Will reasoned. "Your write up on him said he was a businessman. He does illegal shit but he still needs to be on time or else no one's going to trust him with their stuff. Illegal goods-havers are probably more picky than legal ones. Given the need to stay quiet and all that." I glanced at him, surprised. I had known all that—because I wrote it in the case file. Will had actually read the case file? And analyzed it? What new world was this?

"Well then where is he?" I asked quietly.

"We could check his flat." Will offered.

"Until we get a warrant, all we can do is knock, and he's definitely not answering the door if he's not showing up to the meet." I reminded him tiredly, leaning my head back and looking up at the sky, contemplating the life choices that had gotten me here, to this incredibly annoying conversation.

"We don't have enough reason for a warrant." Will informed me.

"Well then, we aren't going in." I informed him shortly, rolling my head to one side to look down at him, cocking my eyebrow above my sunglasses. He lifted his head slightly and squinted at me in the bright sunlight.

"We won't find him, then." Will noted, and I exhaled. Oh, Will. And I had thought he was doing so well.

"We can check a few other places. I'm just not really in the mood for a manhunt." I told him. He laid his head back down and bared his teeth at me in a wolfish grin.

"I definitely am." Will informed me smugly. I shook my head, shoving down the flare of irritation that came at his words. "What! I'm not good at all the office-y stuff but I think I could kill it in the field if we ever did anything properly in the field…" I made a face.

"Yes, Will, but that's because you live alone and I live with my boyfriend who has been on the verge of asking me to quit this job for about two weeks, now. So." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I don't live alone." Will protested, then grinned in a way that meant he was going to say something gross. "There's always a girl in bed with me, and how can you feel alone like that, Gale?"

"You need to stop talking." I said shortly to Will.

"Sex is natural." He contended.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I will talk about literally any other topic with you."

Will's evil grin dropped to a calculating stare; he pushed himself up properly. "When are you going to report Liam?" He asked.

I froze, staring at my probationary auror. I had made the unilateral decision to not report Liam. It had not—though it should have, I was realizing as I sat on this wall—occurred to me, that everyone else would want me to. "I'm not." I said levelly to him, keeping my gaze on him.

Will made a face, cupping his hand over his eyes like a visor and looking down the street. "He would have hit me if you weren't there."

"Then you won't be alone with him." I said firmly.

"You think it's just a me thing?" Will asked, looking sharply at me. "This time, it was me. Next time, it will be Ryan. Or, worse, it will be Jessie. Which, I realize, genders are equal and all that, shouldn't be worse, but Jessie is a younger girl on the team. If he gives her a black eye, that shit will get him fired, not suspended." He shook his head. "I thought you of all people would know that, Molly."

I stared at him, pain and anger tearing through me. I considered him coldly, my gaze turning steely. "Don't you fucking dare say that to me." I enunciated carefully, saying the words slowly. Will didn't shrink, but also didn't continue. I stared at him. "Liam doesn't need to be reported. I handled it. That's all you need to know."

Will shook his head tightly. "Molly. He almost _hit me_. I don't stand for that."

The anger that had been tearing at me evaporated, leaving cool panic in its place. _I don't stand for that_. This was the problem. Will _shouldn't_ stand for that. I wouldn't stand for that. Had it been anyone but Liam, I would have reported it. But I _liked_ Liam. Liam had been my friend since fourth year at Hogwarts. Liam had come up through the Auror Department with me. Liam and I had requested each other as partners. Liam had been at all of my birthdays, was muggleborn with me, had my little brother's cell phone number. Liam was one of my best friends.

But covering for people who punched people was not something that I did.

Fuck.

I reached up, scratching my forehead once before letting my hands drop to my sides. Will got to know the deal I made. He deserved to know how this was being handled. I had to be nice to him. "Liam's going to therapy. Twice a week. I get a note from the woman that he's going to. If he doesn't go, he knows I'll report him. If it happens again—if _anything_ happens again," I elaborated after a beat, "I'll report him."

"You need to report him now." Will said lowly. My new-found patience was already wearing thin.

"I'm not doing that." I said firmly, making sure I didn't sound too sharp.

"Well, I'll do it." Will said shortly. My patience dried up entirely. It was not common for underlings to write up superiors. However, there was a procedure for it. And I was pretty sure this was exactly the situation that it had been created for.

"It'll be your word against his." I said sharply.

"And yours?" Will asked darkly. I glared pointedly at him. Will shook his head, looking away from me. "Considering what happened with your dad—"

"Shut up, or I'll report _you_." I snapped at him. His head spun to face me. "I mean it, Will. My family has nothing to do with this. This is a problem you have with Liam that I am trying to solve with as little collateral damage as possible."

Will shook his head again. "Fine." He muttered angrily. I smiled sarcastically.

"Great talk." I turned away from him. Silence sank in around us as I tried not to think about what Will had said to me. I hated when I had to argue with someone who wasn't wrong.

I didn't think Liam would hurt anyone again.

But I had a bad track record with making that call.

I stood up after a minute and brushed my hands on my pants. I turned back to Will. I didn't get to be pouty with people on my team. This was our job. "Want anything from the shop?" I asked Will in a calm voice.

Will squinted at me, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. "You can't bribe me." He said in a suspicious voice. I glared at him, unable to stop myself now.

"I'm trying to be nice to you, idiot." I snapped.

"By calling me idiot?" Will demanded. The kid just did not know when to stop.

"_Do you want anything or not, you ungrateful imbecile?" _I hissed lethally, taking a step towards him. He leaned back, terror playing over his features, and I let the corners of my mouth pull up in a way that I knew would scare him.

"Coffee." He mumbled. "Black. With sugar. A lot of sugar."

"That sounds disgusting. Keep an eye out for Basil." I muttered, but I turned away, stomping angrily towards the coffee shop. I passed an older woman sitting at the only table outside the shop who met my gaze sympathetically through the sunglasses I was depending on to conceal my identity.

"Keep looking for the right one, honey." She told me gently. I flushed. Apparently Will and I had done a good job of pretending to be a date. Just, a bad one.

"Gonna keep trying with this one, I think." I said to the woman with a false, embarrassed smile, hoping that would end it there. It did not.

"Oh, honey, you can't fix 'em." She told me with big, sincere eyes as she reached out to grab my hand with one hand and pat it with the other. She was clearly a muggle, if she was basically holding my hand and not recognizing me. The wizarding world's level of obsession with the Potter family had leaked so severely into my life that there was no chance that I would have gotten away with this. "You're still young, you can't be more than thirty." She winked conspiratorily at me as I blinked, open-mouthed at her, like a fish. "Find yourself a man who doesn't make you crazy. Take it from an old woman." She got up, picking up her paper cup of coffee and turning to walk away, leaving a crumpled napkin and a dirty stirrer on the table. I stared down at it.

Will appeared at my elbow as soon as she was out of earshot. "What'd she say to you?" He demanded in a whisper. "Did she say something about Basil? You look like you saw a ghost—"

"Shut up." I muttered grumpily, turning away from him and walking into the shop. "Go back to the wall. Wait for him." I shook my head with a frown, looking at myself in the mirror that was on the wall behind the cashier's head.

I looked _thirty_?

* * *

"We are late." Fred's voice declared loudly as I stepped out of the floo into the auror office, four hours later; my best friend was standing in front of it, looking like he was enjoying the opportunity to scold me a little too much. I flapped a distracted hand at him as I shoved my sunglasses at him. "I do not want women's sunglasses, Miss Molly—"

"They're not a gift." I told him hurriedly, passing him. We were very late; that much, he was correct about. Basil had never shown up. We'd called back Liam and Jessie and Ryan to help us search, but it hadn't helped; we'd come up empty. At this point, we were following up the dumbest leads, but I had wanted to follow up the last one before I went to Albus's quidditch game, which was where we were headed now.

Fred turned to face me as I sprinted to my desk, tugging my chair out and reaching down to pull my bag out from beneath it. I heaved it up onto my desk and rifled through it, looking for the obnoxiously orange shirt I'd packed this morning. I pulled it out, finally, dropping it on my desk, before I reached for the hem of my shirt and hauled it up.

"Molly!" Fred exclaimed.

"I'm wearing a sports bra, not lingerie. What kind of working woman do you think I am?" I demanded of the boy, twisting to frown at him; he had clapped a hand over his eyes. He opened two of his fingers and peeked between them. I stuck my tongue out at him before I tugged my t-shirt over my head, then I turned back to my desk, reaching up with one hand to remove my hair tie while I grabbed my bag with the other.

"Albus would not like this." Fred informed.

"Albus posed in his boxers and a pair of orange knee-high socks for a cover of Seeker's World last year." I retorted. "I get to wear just a sports bra in the office sometimes." I told him, swinging back to face him with a big grin.

"It was uncomfortable seeing all the little warts fawning over my cousin's body." Fred admitted. I laughed. Little warts was what Fred called the Hogwarts students who constantly flooded his father's store. I loved it. Especially because it had inspired me to call Cal and Ellie little warts, which they predictably hated.

"OMG Molly's smiling." Will said, stopping as he stepped out of the floo; Liam bumped into him but just shoved past him rather than threaten to kill him. _Progress_.

"Yes, she does that when she sees her boyfriend." Liam snapped

"Did you just say OMG out loud?" Fred asked Will, a slow, mocking smile growing on his face. I sighed. I would have loved to let Fred tear Will apart. It probably would have done Will good. But I was too eager to see Al to let Fred occupy

"Yeah, he does that." Liam muttered grumpily as he came up to his desk.

"Still so fun-loving." Fred said happily; Liam turned around to frown at him, and Fred beamed at him. "I haven't seen you in _so long_, man." He held out a hand and Liam accepted it, shaking it once, and Fred bro-hugged Liam, which Liam returned enthusiastically.

"Ever think that was intentional?" Liam snarked, pulling away.

Fred held a hand over his heart. "Never ever." He promised. Liam chuckled despite himself, shaking his head and turning back to the desk. I watched him after a moment, warmth for the boy welling in my chest.

"Come with us." I urged Liam in a sudden fit of generosity. "We have extra space in the box—"

"You have a fucking _box_?" Liam demanded, staring at me, his eyes burning with jealousy.

"Come! You need to relax." I urged. "This will be fun. Like old times. You and me and Fred and Al—"

"Did you have girl friends?" Will asked. I shot him a nasty look, and Will pointed accusingly at me, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "See! _That's_ the face you usually make." I weighed the possibility of killing him against how much time we had to get to the game before it began, then made a growly noise as I spun back to Liam.

"Li, if you're coming, you gotta move fast. We're leaving now." I told my partner. Liam narrowed his eyes calculatingly.

"I'll come." Will volunteered.

"We don't have enough seats." I informed him coolly, not even glancing at him. I had not yet forgiven him for the threat to report Liam. Even if he was right, I didn't like it.

"You have a box." Will retorted. I snorted, finally glancing at him with a cruel smile.

"Then I guess you're just _not invited_." I murmured coldly.

"I'm coming." Liam said, flashing a smug grin at Will, who was watching me with wide eyes. Liam grabbed his wand and his jacket from the back of his chair, grinning at Will. "And, since you're so eager to fill your time tonight, have fun with the paperwork from today."

Will looked from me to Liam, and then back to me. I kept up my scary Molly smile, and he finally pouted childishly. "I hate you guys." He grumbled.

Fred laughed as Liam grinned wolfishly at his probationary agent. "I'll have a beer for you." He informed the boy. Will rolled his eyes, turning away, and I laughed, starting for the floo. I heard Liam and Fred catch up to me, Fred chatting amicably with Liam—they weren't best friends, but had been roommates for 7 years—and grinned to myself as I reached for the green floo powder. I needed his night off.

Ten minutes later, we were stepping onto the club level of the quidditch stadium, having navigated the ticket situation. Fred held open the door to the Potter family's box for me with a sweeping arm, and I rolled my eyes but grinned as I passed him, stepping into the warm room.

James Potter and Sera Finnigan were here, as were my brothers Cory and Nate. Victoire Weasley-Lupin was there with her youngest daughter, Daley—she had married Al's godbrother Teddy when I was in fifth year, and they'd had their first daughter a year later, and their second just a year and a half ago. I liked the older one fine, but Daley was my favorite of the babies in the family by far.

"Hey baby girl!" I cheered as I made a beeline for Vicky and her daughter; Daley twisted to look at me from her mother's arms and then beamed.

"Moll!" She said happily, releasing her mother and reaching out for me. Vicky readjusted her hold on her daughter, smiling wryly at me.

"Her name is _Molly_, sweets." She said to her daughter. I ducked down to press a kiss to the little girl's soft blond hair, and she giggled as I did. I squeezed her arm lightly, grinning at her, before I realized I felt the gazes of the rest of the room on me. Nate had stayed seated but Cory had stood up, and was watching me wearily, as was James Potter. Sera was watching me with open concern. _What? _

I swung my gaze to my boyfriend's cousin, smiling ruefully at the older woman. "Hey Vic."

"You look all healed." She said warmly. _Oh. _That was why everyone was staring at me. Because this was the first time anyone (other than Nate and Fred) had seen me. Shit. Yeah.

"Oh—yeah, I am." My smile faded, and I felt Liam tense behind me. "I'm sorry, I guess I haven't seen you since."

"You're okay, though?" Sera asked, behind me, and I twisted around to see her. She looked from me to Liam, then looked back to me anxiously. I nodded once.

"All healed." I said with a smile. "Wes took care of it." I reached up, running a hand through my hair nervously. Fred came up behind me and slipped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him lightly.

"Takes more than that to get Miss Molly!" He said cheerfully; Cory chuckled lightly, and I saw Nate cast a suspicious glance up at our little brother. "Isn't Albus's game beginning?"

I nodded, glancing up at him gratefully before Liam crossed in front of me, muttering something about needing a drink, and Fred dropped his arm to follow him. I crossed to the glass wall that separated the outside and inside of the box—the whole thing could fit 30 people on a good day, but the Potters and Weasleys never showed up in numbers like that. Mostly, it was James, Fred and I who came to these things.

I slid through the door, closing it lightly behind me as the dull roar of the quidditch stadium rose around me. The stands were really not full, but the boxes were at a good height, which meant that seats above and below me were definitely occupied. I sank into one of the seats, pulling my legs up and resting my ankles on the back of the seat in front of me. I loved the sound of the quidditch stadium—all of this anonymous noise to get lost in.

Before I could, though, I heard the door behind me open and close, and then quiet footsteps. My younger brother sank silently down in the seat beside me, baby Daley in his arms. He settled her easily so she was on his lap, facing forward, his arms around her protectively even as he sank back comfortably in the seat.

"I do not like 90% of the crazy people your boyfriend is related to," Nate murmured, "but this one's cute."

"Moll Moll Moll Moll." Daley chanted happily, twisting to grin at me, two teeth visible.

"Hey Miss Daley." I grinned back at her, looking back up at Nate. "Of course you like this one. She reminds you of Ellie. Who, despite your protests, we all know is your favorite."

Nate just grinned silently at me. I wasn't wrong; he and Ellie were an inseparable pair. It had been adorable when Ellie was little, and now that she was older, Ellie did a good job of making Nate a part of her Hogwarts life, which was thoughtful of her. Ellie was so much better at all that stuff than I had been; she took care of Cal at school, and made sure Nate got to feel like her big brother even though I knew it had to annoy her sometimes.

"So. Molls." Nate glanced at me. "Speaking of Ellie." He hesitated. "She asked me to talk to you."

I shot Nate a look. This, unfortunately, was the flip side of Nate and Ellie being very close. Sometimes they were co-conspirators. "What?"

"She wants to join dueling club." Nate said after a beat. I shot him a dark look. I'd jointed dueling club late—sixth year—but had been captain by seventh. I'd loved it. Cormac had followed me into it and loved it too. We'd both gotten a few injuries—even with Professors around, it wasn't a perfect system—but we'd both needed it because dueling club made sure you knew how to protect yourself, and Cory and I_ needed to feel safe_. Ellie didn't.

One of the few blessings the Gales had managed to swing was that, while my father had been an asshole of unparalleled proportions, Ellie and Cal didn't remember it. We'd left when they were seven. And so they knew all the stories, and they remembered Nate and Dad getting into a fight, in the final throe of the whole debacle. But they had never feared for their safety, or they didn't remember doing so. They didn't need this.

"Why didn't she ask me?" I asked a little sharply.

Nate groaned, bouncing baby Daley a little when she looked up at him, concerned. "Don't use that voice." He begged. "She's just trying not to piss you off."

"Well, it pisses me off that she went behind my back to—"

"She didn't do that." Nate asserted, and I met his gaze irritably. "She didn't. She asked me to talk to you. Not to suck up."

I shook my head. "Tell her I said no."

Nate blew out a breath, and I shot him a warning look—don't argue with me—but he didn't heed it. "Why?"

"Do you know what you learn in Dueling Club?" I asked lowly. Nate glanced at me. "How to defend yourself. Ellie doesn't need to know that."

"Okay, yes she does." Nate corrected, shooting me an irritated look. "What if she gets a bad boyfriend? What if some asshole tries something? What if she decides to be an auror like her big sister?"

"She is not being an auror." I said flatly.

"Because it's too dangerous?" Nate asked, and when I turned to face him, he smiled humorlessly at me over Daley's head. "Hypocrite."

I glared at him. "You're telling me you want her out in the field with me?" I demanded angrily. "I almost got killed last week. Ellie is not going to be an auror."

Nate's face sombered, the humorless smile dropping as he stared at me. "You almost got _killed_?" He asked me after a beat, his voice low and dangerous; in his lap, Daley, who had mostly been silent, shifted at his tone. She made a whiny noise so I reached out and grabbed her, shifting her onto my lap, where I bounced her lightly. I watched her for a long moment.

"Yeah."

Nate blew out a breath. "Fuck." He muttered, turning to look at the stadium before he pushed himself to his feet, walking to the edge of our box. I hoisted Daley up on my hip and followed him down the stairs, moving to stand almost a foot away from Nate, my hip bumping the fence.

"I'm sorry." I murmured. "I shouldn't have said that."

Nate said nothing. I looked down at Daley, smiling at her and smoothing down her hair; she reached up and grabbed my hand, looking up at me seriously. "What's up Miss Daley?" I asked her.

She looked at my fingers. "One," she tugged on my index finger, "two, three," She kept one hand on my ring finger and reached back for my thumb. "Forgot! Four." She released my ring finger for my pinkie. "Five."

"Good job, Day!" I cheered, and she clapped one of her hands on mine.

"Six, seven, eight, nine, ten." She chanted proudly up at me.

"Wow!" I mirrored her smile. "What a smartypants."

"I'll take her. I'm going back in." Nate murmured abruptly, reaching out; I passed the toddler to him, and Nate bounced her easily, before he lifted his gaze to me. "Be careful, alright? I know you can't talk about what happened, but you say you were almost killed, Liam's wound tight as a drum, and I was _there_ when you showed up, bleeding, like _30 minutes _after it happened which my loose medical knowledge tells me is shitty. And then there's your boyfriend, who _cried_ last week, when all we knew was that your team was in enough trouble to make Mr. Potter disapparate from dinner. So." He stared at me. "Be careful."

"I am." I promised. Nate rolled his eyes, but before he could berate me, the whole stadium went dark, the glow of the lights dimming and the huge glowing orbs around the field brightening until the field was thrown into high relief. The door to the rest of the box opened and James, Sera, Cory, Liam, Fred, and Vicky filed out. Fred pushed Liam out of the way, skidding to my side, and Liam shoved Fred into me, shooting him an irritated look as I just held onto the fence, trying not to bump into Nate and Daley.

"Idiots." I grumbled. And then the noise overtook us.

"_Our guests, the Falmouth Falcons!" _The Announcer's voice boomed across the stadium; a set of two-story double doors opened at the end of the field, and the team swept out to a low roar of anger from the truly dedicated Cannons fans._ "Ariane Schilling, Keeper and Team Captain; Kingston Jeffries, Ralf Torin and Carolina Cardona as Chasers; Cairbre and Fiona MacOlin as Beaters; and Maeve Wallis as Seeker._" They swept around the field, not too fast so as to see some of the fan, and Cairbre MacOlin slowed in front of our box long enough to flash me a grin and wink at me. I stared at him, shocked at his audacity, while Fred straight-up cackled beside me. I turned to him, beginning to glare, and Fred pointed to the curtain that would pull back to reveal the cannons; it fluttered shut. Albus had definitely seen.

Ugh.

"Fucking MacOlin—" I muttered, reaching up to push my hair out of my face. The Falcons settled on their side of the filed.

"_And the home team, the one, the only, Chudley Cannons! Blaise Blagoyevich as keeper; Ani Narang, Noemi Alders, and Liese Hooben as chasers; Patrick Bland and Rob Offerman as beaters; and Albus Potter, seeker and Team Captain!"_ There was a roar and even I joined in this time. The curtain slid open elegantly and the Cannons flew out, sweeping around the field in a counterclockwise motion, and I watched Albus move around the other side before he came around to my side.

Albus slowed down as the team approached our box and then stopped in front of us, hovering in front of me. I stared at him speechlessly.

Oh my god.

"Hey Miss Molly." He said charmingly. I felt my face heat up as _everyone in the stadium_ stared at us.

"What would you say you're doing?" I asked him carefully.

"Hoping to get a well-wish from the lady before the match." He beamed at me. Despite myself, I felt the corner of my mouth pull up into a half smile. He loved using that idiotic old-timey voice.

"Albus, you have to go play quidditch." I reminded him, trying desperately to wrestle the smile back and failing. He beamed at me, tilting his broom forward just enough that he slid up to the other side of the fence, turning his broom so he was yet closer. I slid forward, my hips pressing against the fence, and Al reached forward, his hand slipping around the back of my neck and pulling me forward just enough that his lips hit mine.

I grinned as he did, reaching forward with my arms to sling them around his neck loosely, tugging me towards him. He grinned against my lips, and happiness exploded in my chest. Albus and I had been together since we were fifteen and sixteen. Now we were 22 and 21.

We'd been really lucky to get away with this for so long.

"You are such a show off," I whispered when he pulled back after a second.

"Like I'm gonna let that idiot get away with winking at you." He murmured to me. He kissed me again, for only a second, before he pulled away carefully, making sure not to pull me over the fence. I released him reluctantly and tilted my head to grin at him.

"Be careful. He's got a bat." I chided him. Albus laughed, and I shook my head at my heedless boyfriend. "Y'know, we're going to be all over the tabloids?"

"Because you look so good in orange?" Albus asked innocently, and I laughed a little at that one; he pulled back on his broom and then took off, full speed, whooping as he did. The stadium exploded in cheers as he went to hover with his team, grinning at his teammates.

"Oh, for the love of God." James muttered.

"You guys are really gross." Cormac said in an unhappy voice. I turned back to Cormac, and he made a face. I was unable to keep down the brilliant smile on my face, though, and Cory's disgust faded as I reached up to pull my hair back from my face, feeling like I was back at Hogwarts, flirting with Albus in the seemingly endless sexual tension we'd tried (or, rather, _I'd_ tried) to postpone for months, before finally giving in.

"Shush." I reached up to rub a hand over my mouth, hoping that getting rid of what I was sure was smudged lipgloss would help my case. It did not.

There were moments of doubt with Albus. But then there were moments like this—where we were kids again, and I forgot I was an auror and he was a big quidditch guy and we were just those two idiots in fifth year, and I was kissing him in Gryffindor tower for the first time. He'd asked me where I stood, and I had said _I stand with you_. It had been so simple then. I had thought I could have a boyfriend who would just be a boyfriend. And then Albus had become my whole world, endlessly complicating the decision.

But the best decisions were the hard ones. And, Lord knows, I'd made harder ones.

I locked eyes with Cormac. This decision was nothing. This one was about me, not the kids, not the junior aurors. I didn't matter. But Albus did.

I blew out a breath, shaking my head, turning back to the fence and looking up at my boyfriend. He caught my gaze and waved, smiling sweetly. I waved back, pushing away thoughts. I didn't have to decide this right now.

Besides, I was worried I already had.

* * *

**A/N**: this one is a touch more light-hearted, y'all. So everyone can stop cruising on adrenaline. :)

Sorry for the delay. Life things got in the way, as they so often do. Dumb life things. But the Philadelphia Eagles won their first preseason game against the Steelers. So. Yay!

Shout out to the ten (wow!) reviewers from the last chapter:

Fionamoi

ink2parchment

bythesea232

I'mSiriuslyAmazing

Lucy Greenhill

Molivline

Alayathereader

potterblacklupin-4ever

Kaylee13133

nuts4nargles


	6. Shake

Shake

_"I put in the pictures, you put in the time_  
_You put all those memories so deep inside my mind_  
_Now the wind, yes, the wind keeps_  
_Pushing you to me_  
_Time in time out_  
_I know when it's time to leave."_

-_The Head and the Heart_

Sometimes I wake up, and there are people in my flat.

This came with being the girlfriend of a boy with one million family members and four younger siblings myself. It's all part and parcel. But I don't _like _it when this happens, because my boyfriend, beloved though he is, often leaves our bedroom door open, and the voices of our many relatives wake me up.

I frowned into my pillow, wondering if I could block it out, then I heard the low tones of Albus's brother and Al's light laughter, and I rolled onto my back, glaring at the ceiling. I wanted to know what they were talking about—Albus and James rarely laughed, mostly just clashed. But I also wanted to stay in bed. Today was _Saturday_. I didn't have to work, today. And I _really _didn't have to work today; while Alpha was theoretically supposed to have all weekends off, this was not usually how it shook out. We did, this time, though. And I was taking advantage of it. Even if it meant that we wouldn't find out what happened to Basil Nejem until Monday.

I rolled out of bed and grabbed a sweatshirt to throw on rather than navigate finding a bra. I tugged it on over my head and then exited my bedroom, crossing my arms over my chest sleepily.

I stepped into the doorway to my kitchen; there were _five boys_ in there. James Potter, Fred Weasley, Louis Weasley, Wes Finnigan and Teddy Lupin. I hated everything. "G'morning." I mumbled sleepily, and Albus held up his arm; I burrowed into his side, pressing my sleepy face into his shoulder. "People." I mumbled.

"She's so cute when she's tired." Albus said in an indulgent voice. I grumbled incoherently, and he press a kiss to the top of my head. "We're famous this morning, love. We're on the cover of the Conjurer's Chronicle, _and_ Witch Weekly." I pulled back to squint up at him unhappily, and he beamed down at me.

"Noo." I grumbled, pressing my face back into his shoulder. "Your fault."

"He winked at you." Albus said mournfully above me. "I had to make sure you had not been lured away by his charms."

"Your charms are better." I assured him sleepily, patting his chest with one hand.

"Well, thank goodness for that." Albus said heavily.

"_Anyway_," James said irritably; I felt Albus's chest expand as he took a breath to defend himself. We didn't have to wait for James to speak to know he'd be mean. "I didn't want to have this meeting but Albus insisted. So. Here you are. The groomsmen."

"For what?" That was Fred's voice.

"My wedding." James said, as if this were obvious; it wasn't. In their sixth year, James had pseudo-proposed to Sera. Sera had said yes. There hadn't been a ring. I hadn't noticed a ring since, but I wasn't sure I would have been told there was a ring. But I supposed they were engaged.

"Are we treating the whole engaged thing as real now?" Fred asked James skeptically, and I peeked out to see James scowling while Fred eyed him.

"Did you get Sera a ring?" I asked sleepily. James flushed, turning his glare on me. I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh man." Teddy muttered. "You gotta do that, James. Are you kidding me?"

"Selma would have killed me." Wes agreed, hopping up on the counter and kicking his legs back against the cabinets, scuffing it. I turned my frown on him, and he smiled sheepishly at me. "Sorry, Molly."

"I'm sorry, so does this mean Albus got a ring before James did?" Fred asked, delighted at this revelation. I lifted my shocked gaze to my best friend, staring at him.

"_If we could_ _not talk about things I haven't yet spoken to Molly about that would be great, thanks." _Albus cut in sharply.

I pulled enough away from Albus to frown at him, unimpressed. "You basically told everyone there was a ring before me." I said flatly, remembering how at dinner he'd called it _the ring_. "Mrs. Longbottom. Fred."

"In the interest of full disclosure—Nate." James informed me, feeding the fire.

"You told _Nate_?" I demanded, offended, now. "My _little brother _gets to know before me? Why would you _ever _ask him for—" I sucked in a breath, realizing exactly how that sentence was about to end. _Why would you ever ask him for permission?_ Because my dad was in jail and Nate was my oldest male relative. And because it used to be the fashion that you ask a father for permission to marry his daughter, and when there wasn't a father, _brothers sometimes stepped in_.

Woah.

I sucked in a breath, staring at Albus; he finally let his reluctant gaze land on me, panic in his eyes. "Okay." I said after a beat, my voice a little softer than I intended it to be. Uhoh. I didn't want to have this conversation in front of all of these people. I had to move this along. I swung my gaze to James, forcing my lips to pull upward, into a small smile. "So it seems that I, _unengaged, _have a ring before Sera." I crossed my arms. "You have to get your girl a ring, _Jamie_."

"Subtle attempt at changing subjects, _Molls_." James fired back. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I don't need subtlety, _Jamie_, because Albus has a _ring_." I smirked. "You're like one of those boys who claim size doesn't matter." I tilted my head to the side ten degrees, keeping my eyes on the boy. "That's just because they can't live up to the hype."

"_Yikes_, guys, everyone calm down." Teddy said, shooting me a look. "That escalated quickly." He shook his head. "Jesus." He rolled his shoulders. "Molly, if you can't play nice, you can't be here."

"This is my flat." I said to him shortly. Teddy considered this for a moment, then turned on James.

"If you can't play nice, you can't be here." He informed his godbrother. James stared at Teddy, then glared lethally at me.

"Anyway." Albus began behind me loudly, and I let out a breath. Albus hated it when his brother and I didn't get along. Which was always. "James's getting married. I'm his best man. You guys are the groomsmen." I spun to face Albus, slipping back under his arm, and he cupped my shoulder, while I rested my head on his chest. It was too early to be arguing with James.

"When's the wedding?" Louis asked; Albus reward him with a grin.

"April 21." Albus said easily.

"Where?" Louis continued. Albus glanced at his brother.

"Wes offered us the castle." James said, nodding to Wes, who nodded, flashing a grin at his soon-to-be brother-in-law. "Sera's deciding whether she can…" James's voice hardened in anger. "Get over what else happened there."

"You kept it?" Louis demanded, glancing at Wes, his face grim. I also stared at Wes. The castle was the one that Sera and Wes and their father (though at the time, they hadn't known it) had been kept in by their grandmother, who had died last year. She'd left it to Wes, much to his chagrin. I had assumed he had sold it, or something.

"We filled in most of the cellar, changed what remained into a wine cellar, and turned the library into a room for Dorothy." Wes explained. When Louis frowned, Wes grinned. "Dorothy was she-who-must-not-be-named's house elf. We freed her." Wes rolled his eyes, still smiling. "Not that she wants to be paid or even understands how payment really works, but whatever."

There was a knock at the front door, and I sighed as I pulled away, turning my back on the boys to go discuss. "Molly." James said my name reluctantly, and I glanced back at him, my arms crossed. "Sera says you're in the wedding party. Maid of Honor."

I blinked at him, groaning internally. I didn't want to be Sera's Maid of Honor. I didn't really even like Sera. But Sera didn't have girl friends, or a sister. So theoretical, future sister-in-law would put me high on the list.

"Tell her thank you." I forced a small smile; despite my displeasure, Sera was still painfully nice. Being mean to James to be mean to her would not help me.

I turned away and went back to the front door and opened it, reaching up to run my hand through my hair as I did.

My eyes landed on the man before me just in time for him to smirk at me, setting off sparks of recognition and terror pouring down my back. "You forgot your glass slippers, Princess." He informed me in a low voice, and I swiped out, trying to grab a part of his jacket, but he disapparated with a crack. A sharp pain in my hand indicated he took a piece of me with him.

I cradled my hand to my chest, wrapping my other hand's fingers around my wrist in a make-shift tourniquet. There was a box on the ground in front of me, and I stared down at it, then balanced on one foot, toeing it open. My black, peep-toe pumps—the same ones I had kicked off at the raid that had gone so very wrong—were in the box. Along with a picture that was face-up—I crouched down, unwilling to touch them lest they be cursed. The photo was of hanged man. I recognized him; Basil Nejem.

I crouched there dizzily as a bead of blood trickled down my hand and over my other fingers. They knew where I lived. _They knew where Albus and I lived._

"Albus!" I shouted, panic evident in my voice, launching to my feet as my boyfriend appeared in the hall, his eyes wide. "You have to call your father—"

"Are you _bleeding_?" Albus asked, striding forward; I shook my head, stopping him.

"Stay back." I ordered, and Albus hesitated a step, then shook his own head, coming forward to stand beside me. He looked at my hand, frowning at it, then his gaze dragged down to the box. The black shoes. And the photo of the hanged man.

"What the fuck is this?" Albus demanded, reaching down.

"Don't touch it!" I snapped, grabbing his arm with my bloodied hand; the cut wasn't that bad, I could already tell, more a scrape than a cut, but the blood still transferred to his arm. "It's cursed probably."

"Someone sent us shoes and a picture of a _dead man_." Albus said to me plaintively, his eyes wide. "Does this have to do with that fucking raid?" His voice took an angry edge. I swallowed.

"_He was here_." I admitted.

"Who was?" Albus asked me, catching my anxiety.

"The guy who was—he was at the raid. They're my shoes." I admitted shakily; the adrenaline was beginning to hit me, and it was making my heart bounce off the walls in my chest. Albus stared at me. "I left them at the raid. I wore them that night—to dinner—and had to take them off when I got there because Halley was dead and Liam was—" I fell silent, feeling my face go white, and panic entered Albus's face.

"Wes!" He called back. I turned in the direction of the kitchen and realized that the boys were all in the hallway, staring at me. Wes fought past them, coming up beside us. "James, call Dad. And Uncle Ron. And Liam Fitzroy." Albus shuddered, reaching up to run a hand over his hair as he backed up a step, looking at me; he was panicking. "They know where we live?"

I was physically shaking from the sheer adrenaline in my system. This was fucking unsettling. Wes grabbed my hand, frowning at it. "I don't know _how_, I didn't tell them—"

"I know you didn't, Love, but—" Albus threw a hand out towards the box we couldn't touch, as if that explained his point. It kind of did. "He was here. Holy shit. He was _at our door_."

"This is shallow. Barely deep enough to bleed. I can fix it here." Wes said in a very calm voice; I looked up at him, surprised. I'd forgotten he was holding my hand. Jesus, I needed to get my act together. "What happened?"

"He disapparated. I tried to grab him—" I admitted.

"You tried to grab him?" Albus demanded angrily. I swung my gaze back to him.

"I'm an auror!" I protested edgily. "I'm supposed to grab the bad guys—"

"_HE SHOWED UP AT OUR DOOR WITH A PHOTO OF A DEAD MAN AND A PAIR OF SHOES YOU LEFT AT A FUCKING MURDER SCENE, MOLLY! DON'T FUCKING GRAB THOSE GUYS!" _Albus roared, and I flinched, turning my face away from Albus instinctively and squeezing my eyes shut. Albus never yelled at me. Albus never _roared_ at me. Albus and I had arguments, but no yelling allowed, because not everyone who yelled at me had stopped there.

"Hey." Fred Weasley said quietly, slipping between us and facing Albus, and I forced my whole body to un-tense, opening my eyes. Fred had inches on Albus, something I barely noticed—until Fred was towering between us. "Don't yell at her." This was the most serious I'd ever heard him. I swallowed.

"It's okay." I muttered. Fred twisted just enough to shoot me a look, and I shook my head once at him. I'd reacted badly, but that was because of the past. Albus was not my dad. Albus yelled out of fear. Not out of anger. "Fred, seriously, I just overreacted—"

Fred looked reluctant, but fell back a step. Albus had turned away from him, was running his hands through his hair over and over again. He turned back to me, and I met his gaze, feeling guilt well in me to mirror the guilt, anxiety and panic in his eyes. He ducked forward, wrapping his arms around me to press his lips to the top of my head. I pressed my face into his shirt, sucking in a deep breath as the same thought raced round and round in my head.

_They knew where I lived_.

* * *

Five minutes later, Mr. Potter strode out of the floo in our living room, his eyes dark as he swept the room. I'd levitated the box into the living room, and was now sitting in front of it, Albus beside me, his hand tight around my good one. My bad hand had been healed, and I'd washed off the blood; it looked normal enough, now, for all that there was a little pink scar. Fred was leaning against the wall next to the couch. James was seated on the couch catty corner to us, and Wes, Louis and Teddy were standing across from us.

"What happened?" Mr. Potter asked as the floo lit and Mr. Weasley stepped through; I glanced, distracted, past him as the floo lit once more after Ron Weasley. Liam appeared, his gaze dark, and I straightened up when I saw him, my stomach churning.

"What the hell—" Liam said, approaching me, and I shook my head once, pointing to the box.

"Don't touch it, but that's Basil in the photo, right?" I asked him; I wanted confirmation on this before all else, even if that meant I ignored my boss. Liam went over to the box and peered inside, pulling a pair of leather gloves out of his pocket and slipping them on. He stared down at it, and I saw the tendons on his neck stand out before he nodded jerkily.

"Fuck." He said lowly. "So Basil's dead."

"You _know _that guy?" Albus demanded, and I felt his accusatory gaze on me.

"We've been looking for him." I said quietly to my boyfriend, looking up at him. "He was my main source for the raid. He disappeared the day I talked to him." I shook my head.

"Molly, I need to know what happened." Mr. Potter said quietly. I glanced up at him.

"Someone knocked on the door." I said carefully, trying to sound like I understood the urgency of this without crying. "And I opened it and there was a man outside, one of the men from the raid. He…" I hesitated; I hadn't yet mentioned this part to Albus. "He said 'you forgot your glass slippers, Princess' and then disapparated, and I grabbed for him but he disapparated, and I got spliced a little. And then I opened the box." I glanced at it. "Those are my shoes. The ones I left at the raid. And that's Basil Nejem in the photo. He's…" I shook my head.

"Which guy from the raid?" Liam asked. I swallowed, looking up at him.

"One of the guys in the main area. I think he was the one who—" I opened and closed my hand to mime grabbing.

"What does that mean?" Albus asked. I glanced at him. He was watching me. I swallowed. I wasn't supposed to talk about this. But this room was only people I trusted. And I couldn't not explain this to Albus.

"One of the guys tried to grab me." I admitted shortly; horror twisted Albus's features. "He grabbed my arm and pulled me away. I fought back, lost my wand, found my phone. Scratched Liam accidentally." Albus's lips parted in shock.

"_What_?" He asked lowly. "Does grab mean _kidnap_ to you?" I swallowed, and Albus shook his head, releasing my hand and standing up. He turned away from me, reaching up to cup the back of his head with both of his hands. He stood there, staring at our wall for a moment. "Did you know he knew you? Did he know your name?" His voice was low and dangerous. I stared at his back. I didn't want to answer that.

But lying to Albus was bad. I didn't lie to Albus. "He called me princess. He didn't say Potter, or Molly. I thought—I showed up wearing a dress and earrings, Albus. Calling me princess in that context could have been a total nonissue."

He shook his head once. Then he turned back around, his gaze fiery and landing on me. Then his gaze slid up to his dad, and then back to me. "There's no point to quitting now, is there?" He said sharply. "You're already a target. They've already come to our home." I swallowed, looking up to Mr. Potter, who shook his head once.

"I suspect you're right." He admitted lowly.

Albus swore. "_Fucking hell_." He shook his head, swinging his gaze down to me for a moment. "You are—_impossible, _you know that, right?" I swallowed. Albus pressed his lips together, sweeping his eyes over the other boys. "Molly and I are moving. _Tonight_. We'll get a secret keeper or _something_—" He met his father's gaze. "I can't believe you." He hissed at his father. "I can't believe you did this. You hired my girlfriend—the girl I've loved since I was fucking _fifteen-years-old_—and now you've put her in the line of fire?" He stared at Mr. Potter, who was gaping, open-mouthed. "What gave you the right to do that?"

"Albus—" I stood up shakily, taking a step towards him, and Al stepped back from me; I felt hurt bounce through me. Albus _never _stepped back from me.

"Don't." He said angrily. "You know how crazy your job makes me. You _know_. And you got involved in this anyway." He shook his head. "You aren't the only one who carries around fifth year, _Molly_! I was in that fucking courtroom too. You just wanted to save your siblings? Well, _I just wanted to save you_. And you've gone _right back into danger_." He stared at me. "How could you do this to me? I lose sleep, I lose games, and I don't give a shit about any of that as long as you _come home at night_ but today—with my _brother _in the house, no less, and _our best friend_—a criminal came to our door! What if he'd wanted to kill you? What if I'd come to the door and you were dead? What if he had kidnapped you?" He stared at me. "_How could you do this to me?_"

I sucked in a breath, tears building in my eyes as I fell back a step from him. I couldn't cry. Crying is shitty when people are yelling at you—they're angry. Crying would make this about me, and it wasn't about me, it was about Albus.

Fuck, I just wanted to cry.

Albus's chest rose and fell with the words, and I shook my head. "I'm sorry." I said in a small voice. Albus made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. He didn't say anything, though, and I reached up, running a hand over my forehead and pushing my hair out of my face. My eyes burned. I turned to James and Fred, who were both watching us avidly. "Guys." I said in a voice tight with tears. "Can we have the room?" I felt a pleading, manic smile work its way onto my face. This was a disaster.

"No point." Albus muttered, even as Fred and James stood up; they both stopped at his short response.

I tried not to let this amplify my panic, but it did, ten fold. I turned to watch him, and Albus met my gaze, then let out a breath, his shoulders dropping. I stepped forward, and he let me; I stopped about a foot in front of him, my arms crossed against my chest, watching him nervously.

"You can't move in a night." James said quietly; we both looked at him, and he met my gaze sympathetically for the briefest of moments before looking to his brother. Albus was watching him sharply. "You and Molly need somewhere to stay, tonight. Come to Shell cottage. It's basically the end of the earth, it still has all of those wards on it from Bill and Fleur."

Relief crashed like a wave on Albus's face; he glanced at me, and I nodded once. Anything to get out of this.

"Albus…" Mr. Potter murmured, and his younger son didn't look at him. "Can we speak for a moment?" Al shook his head, and I swallowed, looking down.

"Collect your evidence, take away that photograph and those goddamned shoes, and _get out of my flat_." Albus growled at his father, then turned away, leaving the living room. I heard my bedroom door slam. I reached up to cover my face with my hands.

"Shit." Liam murmured.

"Molly?" Fred's voice was closer, now, and I felt his big hands land on my shoulders. "Are you all right?" I dropped my hands, applying all of my willpower to muting my tears. I nodded, looking up at Fred. "Molly." He said lowly.

"He hates me." I said shakily, pulling back a step and crossing my arms against my chest; Fred's arms fell to his sides. "I fucked up—"

"You couldn't have known this would escalate." Fred pointed out firmly. "Your job is dangerous. That's how it works. You do it anyway. Albus just lives in denial about it most of the time. Today, he couldn't." I shook my head once.

"Fred." I said plaintively.

"_And_ he doesn't hate you." Fred said, rolling his eyes as if this was the most ridiculous thing I had ever proposed. "You know as well as I that this is all from concern." I pressed my lips together doubtfully, looking past Fred to James, who was watching me somberly.

"Thank you for inviting us to stay with you." I forced a half smile for my boyfriend's brother. "Unbelievably generous. I don't know what we would have done."

James sighed. "It's okay." He said quietly. "You guys are family."

I felt my eyes burn again at that, and I reached up, rubbing my forehead. "Okay. I should go after Albus." I said thickly. "_Shit_." I walked around Fred and passed James on my way out of the room.

I passed the silent kitchen, deliberately avoiding the gazes of Teddy, Wes and Louis. I crossed to my bedroom door, hesitating before it—did I knock? It was my bedroom, too. But Albus clearly wanted the door to be closed to everyone, _including_ me.

I reached for the doorknob and, after a beat, turned it with a thought prayer to whomever was listening. I entered quickly, closing the door behind me. Albus was lying on the bed, his legs below the knees hanging off, his feet on the floor. All of the fight was gone from his limbs; now, I realized, studying his expression, he just looked miserable. I had done that.

I crossed to him and sank down beside him on the bed, then followed his lead and laid down. He slid his arm under my shoulders, curling me into him, and I did so immediately and gratefully, ducking into him and resting my cheek on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry." I whispered.

"It's not your fault." Albus rumbled tiredly, sounding as if this was a refrain he had been trying to convince himself of. He reached up with his free arm, covering his eyes with his forearm. I closed my eyes. "Fuck, Molly, _how could you not tell me a guy tried to kidnap you?" _Albus's voice arched with helplessness. "You can't lie to me about shit like that. That shit is too serious." Albus sucked in a sharp breath. "Should we be getting a place with a fidelius charm?" He asked. "Are you going to get hurt if we don't? Will there be people at James's place, next? Because I can't just—bring that to James."

I closed my eyes. "We don't have to go there. Or I could stay here." I murmured. Albus's arm tightened around my shoulders. I let out a breath, letting my eyes open. "I don't want you to get hurt." I told him softly. "You could go live with James. You'd be safe there—"

"What in the history of our dating," Albus began lowly, "has made you think that I would ever consent to that?" I lifted my head to look down at him, sliding my hand up his chest comfortingly.

"I just want you to be safe—" I interrupted, feeling his anger return.

"_I don't give a fuck about my own safety, Molly!_" Albus exploded, pushing himself up. I scrambled to the side of the bed, my eyes wide on him. "I _care about you_, and all you have to tell me is that I should go live with my brother so I don't get hurt?" He pushed himself to his feet, running his hands over his hair again, his back to me as his shoulder rose and fell heavily. "I'm trying to be good about this, I really am, but _what am I supposed to do_? You're the only thing I care about—we can sell the flat and I can lose my team, and all I need is _you_. But you're the only thing _that you won't let me have_!" He shook his head. "I can't fucking do this anymore. I need you to reign in your need to put yourself behind _everything else on earth_, for me. I need this not to be the rest of our lives go. Because when guys come to the door, you have to shut the door in their faces again. And when they've murdered people—_three people, _Molly—then you have to turn and run." Albus sucked in a shaky breath. "I have a dad who is a hero, and it _sucks_, Molly, because one day _he isn't going to come home_. The boy-who-lived can't live forever. You can't do that to me, too. Because I won't leave you, but I will probably lose my goddamned mind."

I stared at him. Albus and I had this one, awful, weird, defining thing in common; our dads had left gaping holes in our lives. My dad because he was abusive, but Al's dad because Harry Potter was like a cat with nine lives; the rest of the wizarding world thought he was immortal, but Albus knew better. Albus's mum knew better, his siblings knew better. Because Harry Potter was the first to run into the building on fire and the last to run out; he was the first to leap in front of a younger auror, and the last to let a healer check him out. That made him a hero, but Albus knew—James knew, Lily knew, Ginny knew—that it meant that one day, something that didn't _have_ to kill him, would. And the list of things that _did _have to kill him—did have to kill _me_—was long enough. If Harry Potter made it to 70 years old, it would be a miracle.

Albus didn't want that again.

"I'll put myself on desk duty until the end of the case, and then I'll quit." I offered after a beat; Albus stared at me. "I can't quit now. Not in the middle of this case, not when your dad said it wouldn't help. But I will go on desk duty, and quit once this is done." _Even though Liam will be the only person with more than 2 years of experience on Alpha. Even though Jessie and Ryan and Will might get hurt for it._ "You're right. I don't close the door on the bad guys. I don't know how. So they'll have to stop coming here." I shrugged as if this were simple, as if I couldn't already imagine the look on Liam's face when I told him he was going to be alone in the field. _Fuck_.

Albus stared at me. "Seriously?" He asked softly. I nodded. Albus's eyes softened impossibly, and he leaned back against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the ground, his knees up in front of him. He extended his arms out, looking up at me. "Thank you." He said sincerely, his voice rough.

I forced a smile for the boy I loved. He returned it shakily.

"For you, anything." I murmured.

At least that was true.

* * *

"Settling in alright?" James asked me, and I twisted look at my boyfriend's brother, smiling slightly at him. It had been just an hour since the bedroom, since I'd promised Albus I'd give up the job I loved because sometimes murderers showed up at our door.

Seriously, though, what was wrong with me that I had taken this job?

"Yeah." I smiled a little for James, letting my wand arm drop to my side. I was trying to unpack without having to touch things, but it was proving difficult. Al's trunk was remaining stubbornly full.

Al and I had just thrown all of our clothes into his old trunk from Hogwarts. I'd gone ahead to the house to unpack while Albus figured out what of our other possessions we needed and talked to the letting agency about renting out the apartment.

"Albus didn't mean any of the shit he said today." James said to me after a beat, taking a step past the doorway tentatively. I blinked at him. "He's—listen, it's hard. Being in love with someone who—" He let out a breath. "I know, this is absolutely none of my business. But I just…" He shook his head. "I can't let him screw this up for himself. He just loves you and you're a little self-destructive. Don't let his anger make you think he doesn't love you."

I stared at James. What was _happening_? This was the boy who had said he hated me in fifth year; the boy who could not stand to see me near his little brother. Now, James was giving me advice on Albus? Trying to get me to forgive him?

Was this really so bad that James felt like he had to intervene?

"I'm going on desk duty until the end of the case and then quitting." I told him quietly. "He did mean what he said. And he's right. I don't—my instinct isn't to run away, ever, because…well, just because." I felt a flush on my face, and James had the grace to look embarrassed. James. _With grace_. What new world was this? "He can't handle that I'm working there, so I won't make him."

Frustration made James's mouth tight. "He's wrong." He said lowly. "You shouldn't quit. You love that job."

I swallowed, staring at James. "Albus tried to deal with it. He couldn't. That means I have to." I stared at James.

"That's not how it works." James protested. I frowned at him. "He doesn't care that his job is dangerous and you worry about him—"

"He does care." I snapped at him. "And if I asked him to quit, he would, in a heartbeat. But I won't do that, because he loves his job—"

"You love _your_–" James said, stepping forward.

"Yes, but _today my job put him in danger_." I cut him off. James stared at me. "I don't give a fuck about my own safety, as has been previously pointed out to me by everyone and their brother. But today, Albus might have been the one to answer the door. Or Fred, or you! And I can't have that. I can't. I won't. So, my job has to go. Albus isn't being selfish; I was selfish, and then I got lucky as hell that today, I was the one that answered the door." I shook my head. "What if it had been Al? What if someone had hurt him? What if someone had kidnapped him or _killed _him?" I stared at James. "Albus is the boyfriend of the head of Alpha team and the son of the head of the whole department. He is probably a target to someone, and I didn't even think about it. If I can't anticipate that, than I can't have that job. End of story."

James stared at me silently, and I swallowed, turning back to my bags and tossing my wand on the bed, grabbing a sweater and folding it silently. I got through four pieces of clothing before I heard my bed creak. I glanced back; James was sitting on it, watching me. I held his gaze.

"Good for you." He said finally. "Because Dad never quit. Neither did Uncle Ron. And we've had a few midnight trips to St. Mungo's. Mum's cried a lot. Hermione almost left Ron the year you were fifteen. And it's not because no one loves anyone else. It's because they're dedicated, and brave, and selfish." James stared at me. "Someone needs to do these jobs. The really shitty ones that keep you up all hours and drag you into work all the time and sometimes kill people. But I don't want it to be Albus's girlfriend. It's too hard on the spouses. I've seen it." James stood up, brushing off his pants. He took a deep breath. "That said, if one of those guys shows up at our front door, I'm kicking you out. Sera can't be in danger."

I flashed him my teeth in something that would have been a smile from someone less miserable. "Gotcha." I turned back to my closet. I heard James leave, and once the door closed behind him, I closed my eyes and leaned forward, pressing my forehead to my wardrobe. This goddamned family was going to be the death of me.

Of course, the other option was my being the death of them.

* * *

**A/N**: Oh hey there. Six reviews this time! Thanks guys :)

Fionamoi (you are tres loyal, thank ya!)

dislikethou (I hope this chapter cleared up some stuff! you're right that I left it a medium amount of open-ended in Left Unsaid. Sorry bout that)

Auzie Ninja (more Al in this chapter, as ordered)

Lucy Greenhill (thank you for reviewing every chapter! so encouraging)

ink2parchment (hope you like this one as well!)

Kaylee13133 (you're so sweet! thank you so much.)


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